Mental Health Disorders in the Criminal Justice System: Annotated Bibliography

Australian Institute of Criminology, 2007, The identification of mental health disorders in the criminal justice system, prepared by Ogloff, J.R.P., Davis, M.R., Rivers, G. and Ross, S., Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.

In this research bulletin commissioned by the Criminology Research Council, Ogloff et al. review the level of screening and the instruments used across jurisdictions to assess mental illness in justice agencies. Ogloff et al. intend to highlight the need and argue for a nationwide system of screening of all accused offenders taken into police custody, in order to identify those who require a comprehensive mental health assessment. The authors based their research on interviews and the examination of secondary documents covering criminal justice agencies in each of the states and territories. From the research findings the authors propose ten recommendations in order to improve the coverage and quality of screening for mental illnesses in the Australian criminal justice system. This article is useful for my research topic as Ogloff et al. outline a fundamental issue that requires further research, this may provide direction to my research question. The main limitation of this bulletin stems from the fact that both of the cost models under consideration rely on the assumption that the rates of mental illness in arrestee populations are constant across jurisdictions and hence their calculations would need to vary should the evidence suggest otherwise. The authors suggest that unless the courts, police, and parole authorities are given training and resources to better meet the needs of the mentally ill nothing will be achieved. The ideas within this research bulletin will form the basis of my researc...

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..., Rossiter, K.R. and Verdun-Jones, S.N., 2011, ‘“Forensic” labelling: An empirical assessment of its effects on self-stigma for people with severe mental illness’, Psychiatry Research, vol. 188, no. 1, pp.115-122.

DeVoe, D., 2003-2004, ‘The mental health and the criminal justice conundrum: Solutions’, Capital University Law Review, 2003-2004, pp. 925-933.

Constantine, R., Andel, R., Petrila, J., Becker, M., Robst, J., Teague, G., Boaz, T. and Howe, A., 2010, ‘Characteristics and experiences of adults with a serious mental Illness who were involved in the criminal justice system’, Psychiatric Services, vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 451-457.

Australian Institute of Criminology, 2007, The identification of mental health disorders in the criminal justice system, prepared by Ogloff, J.R.P., Davis, M.R., Rivers, G. and Ross, S., Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.