The Sociology Of The Mentally Disordered Offender

In recent years mentally disordered offenders have attracted considerable attention in the media and there has been heated public debate as to the best treatment and prevention of re-offending. Simultaneously there has been a significant increase in the amount of research, specialist courses and training devoted to this particular, high profile area of mental health care. This is as a result of considerable public pressure to develop effective theory and practice for diagnosing and treating this patient group.A Sociology of the Mentally Disordered Offender provides a concise, and most importantly, accessible guide to the main theoretical issues from a sociological perspective as a counterbalance to the predominant medical model. Having established a theoretical framework through the exploration of topics such as the relationship between crime and mental disorder the authors look at the processes by which offenders are referred either to criminal justice or the mental health service system, their subsequent treatment and management, and the problem of re-offending. A final chapter looks at ways in which care and management of these patients may be effectively developed in the future.

In recent years mentally disordered offenders have attracted considerable attention in the media and there has been heated public debate as to the best treatment and prevention of re-offending. Simultaneously there has been a significant increase in the amount of research, specialist courses and training devoted to this particular, high profile area of mental health care. This is as a result of considerable public pressure to develop effective theory and practice for diagnosing and treating this patient group.A Sociology of the Mentally Disordered Offender provides a concise, and most importantly, accessible guide to the main theoretical issues from a sociological perspective as a counterbalance to the predominant medical model. Having established a theoretical framework through the exploration of topics such as the relationship between crime and mental disorder the authors look at the processes by which offenders are referred either to criminal justice or the mental health service system, their subsequent treatment and management, and the problem of re-offending. A final chapter looks at ways in which care and management of these patients may be effectively developed in the future.

Differences in the perception of certain psychopathological and criminal behaviour are analysed in this volume, as the author believes conflicting assumptions may hinder the effective implementation of a number of key criminological and clinical policy initiatives.

Hundreds of thousands of the inmates who populate the nation's jails and prison systems today are identified as mentally ill. Many experts point to the deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals in the 1960s, which led to more patients living on their own, as the reason for this high rate of incarceration. But this explanation does not justify why our society has chosen to treat these people with punitive measures. In Crime, Punishment, and Mental Illness, Patricia E. Erickson and Steven K. Erickson explore how societal beliefs about free will and moral responsibility have shaped current policies and they identify the differences among the goals, ethos, and actions of the legal and health care systems. Drawing on high-profile cases, the authors provide a critical analysis of topics, including legal standards for competency, insanity versus mental illness, sex offenders, psychologically disturbed juveniles, the injury and death rates of mentally ill prisoners due to the inappropriate use of force, the high level of suicide, and the release of mentally ill individuals from jails and prisons who have received little or no treatment.

In its narrowest sense, "mentally disordered offender" refers to the approximately twenty thousand persons per year in the United States who are institutionalized as not guilty by reason of insanity, incompetent to stand trial, and mentally disordered sex offenders, as well as those prisoners transferred to mental hospitals. The real importance of mentally disordered offenders, however, may not lie in this figure. Rather, it may reside in the symbolic role that mentally disordered offenders play for the rest of the legal system. The 3,140 persons residing in state institutions on an average day in 1978 as not guilty by reason of insanity (see Chapter 4), for example, are surely worthy of concern in their own right. But they represent only 1% of the 307,276 persons residing in state and federal prisons in the same period (U. S. Dept. of Justice, 1981). From a purely numeric point of view, the insanity defense truly is "much ado about little" (Pasewark & Pasewark, 1982). The central importance of understanding these persons, however, is that they serve a symbolic function in justifying the imprisonment of the other 99%. The insanity defense, as Stone (1975) has noted, is "the exception that proves the rule. " By exculpating a relatively few people from being criminally responsible for their behavior, the law inculpates all other law violators as liable for social sanction.

The tenth edition of Sociology of Mental Disorder presents the major issues and research findings on the influence of race, social class, gender, and age on the incidence and prevalence of mental disorder. The text also examines the institutions that help those with mental disorders, mental health law, and public policy. Many important updates are new to this edition: -More first-person accounts of individuals who suffer from mental illness are included. -The new DSM-5 is now thoroughly covered along with the controversy surrounding it. -A new section on on social class and its components. -Updated assessment of the relationship between mental health and gender. - A revised and in-depth discussion of mental health and race. -New material on public policy, mental disorder, and the Affordable Health Care Act. -Updates of research and citations throughout.

First published in 1997, this volume's purpose is to understand and clarify the nature of implicit theories currently held about the mentally disordered offender by respondents who represent a range of agencies: the general lay population, Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Social Services. The significance of this research rests on the premise that a greater understanding of professional and lay perspectives towards the mentally ill offender will help elucidate conflicting assumptions between agencies which, by their very nature, may be seriously disrupting the effective implementation of a number of key criminological and clinical policy initiatives involving the care and management of the mentally ill. In particular, consideration is given to the impact such ideological differences may have with regard to the establishment of community-based psychiatric care programmes, the policy of diverting mentally ill offenders away from the Criminal Justice System and into care by Health and Social Services, and the need to strengthen inter-agency co-operation.

The care and management of mentally disordered offenders poses a major challenge to criminal justice agencies and psychiatric services. These patients, 'the people nobody owns', are particularly vulnerable to political and professional change and as psychiatric services become increasingly community-based, the task of meeting the needs of the offender, as well as expectations of public protection, becomes a more difficult prospect. This book brings together the papers and a summary of the discussion presented at a Cropwood Round Table conference organized by the Institute of Criminology and the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Cambridge. Seeking to define future needs and directions in legal and service provisions, it includes perspectives from the fields of criminology, sociology and social psychiatry, and contributions from practitioners and administrators. Remarkable for the tenacity and depth with which the expert contributors address the problems, this is essential reading for all professionals working in the psychiatric and criminal justice systems with this frequently marginalized client group. Through a searching examination of the situation within one jurisdiction it points the way to service developments, improved care management and research opportunities that have universal applications.

This revised and updated edition of Care of the Mentally Disordered Offender in the Community provides a comprehensive, evidence-based guide to theory and practice. The social and clinical context within which mental health care is provided to offenders in community settings has changed significantly in recent years. An increasing proportion of all mental health care is provided in the community and our knowledge of the links between violence and mental illness has advanced. Existing psychological and pharmacological treatments have been refined and new treatments have been introduced. Epidemiological and intervention-based research has evaluated these changes and suggested new avenues for clinical development. Over three sections, the second edition of Care of the Mentally Disordered Offender in the Community explores the key areas of the field. Part 1 describes the social, administrative and clinical context within which care is now given. Part 2 discusses treatment and the evaluation of violence risk when determining the most appropriate treatment. Part 3 explores psychiatric services and their relationship with other agencies. The text has been updated to cover recent developments in theory and practice. New chapters have been added that cover US provision for people with mental disorders leaving prison, the community management of sexual offenders, the relationship between care and coercion and the treatment of personality disorders. Written by a global team of experts, the book provides critical insights into the social, clinical, and institutional aspects of an increasingly important part of psychiatric community care.

In recent years it has become apparent that mentally ill people are at increased risk of committing crimes of violence. Most writing and research about crime and mental disorder has focused necessarily on the immediate problems which confront clinicians and law makers - assessing and managing the future risk of violence. In this important new book the authors attempt to step back from these immediate preoccupations and describe the criminality of the mentally ill and try to identify the complex chain of factors which cause it. As part of their analysis they examine a unique cohort composed of 15,117 persons born in Stockholm who were studied from pregnancy to the age of thirty. While they conclude that we still do not understand exactly how and why persons with major mental disorders commit crimes, their findings make a valuable contribution to ongoing debates on mental health and criminal justice policy and practice.