Book Review: Mental Disorder and Criminal Justice. Policy, Provision and Practice
| Author | Charlotte Knight |
| DOI | 10.1177/026975800801500105 |
| Published date | 01 January 2008 |
| Date | 01 January 2008 |
International
Review
ofVictimology.
2008,
Vol.
15,
pp.
85-88
IC>
A B
Academic
Publishers
-
Printed
in
Great
Britain
BOOK
REVIEWS
MENTAL
DISORDER
AND
CRIMINAL
JUSTICE.
POLICY,
PROVISION
AND
PRACTICE.
B.
Littlechild
and
D.
Feams
..
Russell
House
Publishing,
2005.
£16.95.
ISBN
l-903855-56X.
This
is
an
edited
volume
of
essays
by
leading
practitioners
and
academics
which
addresses
policy
and
practice
in
the
complex
interface
between
mental
health
and
crime,
and
in
a context
described
as
the
'almost
total
dissonance
between
the
philosophical
and
practical
bases
of
both
systems'.
The
conradictions
and
ambiguities
in
responding
to
people
as
'morally
culpable'
on
the
one
hand,
or
in
need
of
'treatment'
on
the
other,
are
explored.
The
strength of
this
book
is
the
manner
in
which
it
crosses
the
stereotypical
and
assumed
boundaries
between
'victim'
and
'offender',
and
between
'culpability'
and
'vulnerability'.
People
with
mental
health
needs
can
fit
all
of
these
labels
but
service
provision
is
not
always
appropriately
responsive,
and
such
people
are
often
'caught
between
labyrinthine
responses
of
sentencers
and
professionals'.
Victimologists
will
be
particularly interested
in
the
chapter
by
Angus
on
mentally
vulnerable
victims
and
witnesses
in
the
UK.
She
identifies that
people
with
severe
mental
illness
living
in
the
community
are
more
than
twice
as
likely
to
be
victims
of
violence
than
the
general
public,
are
less
likely
to
report,
and
yet
the
over-riding
concerns
of
the
criminal
justice
system
are
to
see
mental
disorder
as
an
indicator of
dangerous
and
unpredictable
behaviour rather
than
a
vulnerability
issue.
The
introduction
of
the
Mental
Health
Bill
with
a
focus
on
the
need
to
detain
people
perceived
to
be
dangerous
has
tended
to
compound
this.
The
book
covers
a
wide
range
of
policy
and
practice
issues
within
the
community,
in
prison,
in
psychiatric
provision
under
mental
health
legislation
and
in
other
secure
settings
in
the
UK.
It
gives
detailed
and
helpful
information
in
relation
to
these
settings
including
detention
by
the
police
and
the
use
of
the
Appropriate
Adult
Scheme,
and
the
role
of
the
prison
service
and
NHS
in
managing
the
increasingly
large
numbers
of
prisoners
with
mental
health
needs.
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