Crime, Punishment, and Mental Illness: Law and the Behavioral Sciences in Conflict

by Patricia Erickson, Steven Erickson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813543383
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	07/18/2008
Series:	Critical Issues in Crime and Society
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

PATRICIA ERICKSON is a professor at Canisius College, where she serves as chair of the department of sociology, anthropology, and criminal justice. Steven Erickson is a forensic psychologist, practicing attorney, and a Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers (MIRECC) fellow at Yale University.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements

1 The Social Construction of Mental Illness as a Criminal Justice Problem
2 Systems of Social Control: From Asylums to Prisons
3 Competency to Stand Trial and Competency to Be Executed
4 The Problems with the Insanity Defense: The COnflict between Law and Psychiatry
5 The "Mad" or "Bad" Debate Concerning Sex Offenders
6 Juvenile Offenders, Developmental Competency, and Mental Illness
7 Criminalizing Mental Illness: Does It Matter?

References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"A provocative, challenging, and thoughtful multi-disciplinary investigation of one of the most serious social issues we face. This is a major contribution to the literature."

New York Law School - Michael Perlin

"This book is informative and, with its reference to specific cases, more interesting than it might otherwise be. Recommended."

Choice

"This book is informative and, with its reference to specific cases, more interesting than it might otherwise be. Recommended."

From the Publisher

A provocative, challenging, and thoughtful multi-disciplinary investigation of one of the most serious social issues we face. This is a major contribution to the literature.— Michael Perlin

New York Law School