Abstract
This chapter affirms the importance of trying to establish an ethical basis for working with ‘mentally disordered offenders’ in the context of academic and policy debate that is often centred around ideas of effective treatment and system management. It is argued that a respect for human rights constitutes the most secure foundation not only for ethical policy and practice, but also for an approach that can contribute to solutions and to positive outcomes — both in terms of meeting the needs of mentally disordered offenders and in reducing reoffending. Rights are here understood as ethical entitlements and, although law is essential in defending and promoting these rights, it is also necessary to find a perspective from which to critique the law. The initial account suggests that human rights include both liberties (freedom from oppression and cruelty, for example) and claims (demands on government to foster circumstances in which people may thrive). The daunting question of what are the rights of mentally disordered offenders is explored by considering each of a paradoxical set of rights that have been attributed to them. It is argued that examination of these putative rights exposes some assumptions about (and ambivalent attitudes towards) mental disorder. It is likely that cultural influences and stereotypes influence reactions towards people believed to be mentally unwell and that these reactions may subvert or distort policy objectives (see Arrigo and Bersot, this volume).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, H. (1987). Justice Unbalanced: Gender, Psychiatry and Judicial Decisions. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Ashworth, A. (1996). ‘Crime, community and creeping consequentialism’, Criminal Law Review, 43, 220–230.
BBC (2013a). ‘Mentally ill people “hit hard by recession”’ — 27 July 2013 — available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23463309 (accessed June 2014).
BBC (2013b). ‘Crime victims with mental illness ignored, research suggests’ — 7 October 2013 — available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24420430 (accessed June 2014).
BBC (2013c). England’s mental health services ‘in crisis’ — 16 October 2013 — available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24537304 (accessed June 2014).
BBC (2014). ‘Patients sectioned “because of pressure on beds”’ — 2 June 2014 — available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27656241 (accessed June 2014).
Bennett, C. (2008). The Apology Ritual: A Philosophical Theory of Punishment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bentall, R. (2003). Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature, London: Allen Lane
Bonta, J, Hanson, K, Law, M (1998). The prediction of criminal and violent recidivism among mentally disordered offenders: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 123 (2), 123–142.
Canton, R. (2002). Rights, Probation and Mentally Disturbed Offenders. In D. Ward, J. Scott and M. Lacey (eds). Probation: Working for Justice ( 2nd edition ). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Canton, R. (2005). Risk Assessment and Compliance in Probation and Mental Health Practice. In B. Littlechild and D. Fearns (eds). Mental disorder and criminal justice: Policy, provision and practice. Lyme Regis: Russell House.
Canton, R. (2008). Working with Mentally Disordered Offenders. In S. Green, E. Lancaster and S. Feasey (eds). Addressing Offending Behaviour: Context, Practice, Values. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Canton, R. (2009). Nonsense upon stilts? Human rights, the ethics of punishment and the values of probation. British Journal of Community Justice, 7 (1), 5–22.
Clapham, A. (2007). Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clement, S., Brohan, E., Sayce, L., Pool, J., and Thornicroft, G. (2011). Disability hate crime and targeted violence and hostility: a mental health and discrimination perspective. Journal of Mental Health, 20 (3), 219–225.
Corston, J. (2007). The Corston Report: A Review of Women with Particular Vulnerabilities in the Criminal Justice System. London: Home Office. Available online at http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/corston-report-march-2007.pdf (accessed June 2014).
Council of Europe (2014). Committee for the Prevention of Torture. Online at http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/
Garland, D. (1990). Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in Social Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Garland, D. (2001). The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gawande, A. (2009). Hellhole: The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture? The New Yorker, 30 March 2009. Available online at http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande (accessed June 2014).
Filer, N. (2013). The Shock of the Fall. London: Harper Collins.
Gearty, C. (2006). Can human rights survive? The Hamlyn Lectures 2005. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gelsthorpe, L. (2007). Probation values and human rights. In L. Gelsthorpe and R. Morgan (eds). Handbook of Probation. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Gies, L. (forthcoming). Mediating Human Rights: Culture, Media and the Human Rights Act. London: Routledge.
Hale, B. (2004). What can the Human Rights Act do for my mental health? Paul Sieghart Memorial Lecture 2004. Available online at http://www.bihr.org.uk/sites/default/files/transcipt_hale.doc (accessed June 2014).
Higgins, J. (1984). The Mentally Disordered Offender in his Society. In M. Craft and A. Craft (eds). Mentally Abnormal Offenders. London: Ballière Tindall.
Home Office (1999). ‘Jack Straw Announces Implementation Date for the Human Rights Act’. News Release 153/99 (18 May 1999 ).
Howard League (2008). ‘Growing Up Shut Up’. Available online at http://snipurl.com/28vnoq9 (accessed June 2014).
Hudson, B. (2001). Human Rights, Public Safety and the Probation Service: Defending Justice in the Risk Society. Howard Journal, 40 (2), 103–113.
Johnstone, G. and Ward, T. (2010). Law and Crime. London: Sage.
Joint Committee on Human Rights (2003). A Culture of Respect for Human Rights, Sixth Report, Session 2002–2003. Available online at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200203/jtselect/jtrights/67/6705.htm#note24 (accessed June 2014).
Lasalvia, A. et al. (2013). Global pattern of experienced and anticipated discrimination reported by people with major depressive disorder: a cross-sectional survey. The Lancet, 381 (9860), 55–62.
Laurance, J. (2003). Pure Madness: How fear drives the mental health system. London: Routledge.
Laurance, J. (2013). Mentally ill people nearly five times more likely to be victims of murder than general population. The Independent, 6 March 2013. Available online at http://snipurl.com/28ybw5m (accessed June 2014).
Leff, J. (2003). The Unbalanced Mind. London: Phoenix.
Loader, I. and Sparks, R. (2002). Contemporary Landscapes of Crime, Order and Control: Governance, Risk and Globalisation. In M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Criminology ( 3rd edition ). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McNeill, F. and Weaver, B., (2010). Changing Lives? Desistance Research and Offender Management. Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research Report No. 3/2010. Available online at http://www.sccjr.ac.uk/publications/changing-lives-desistanceresearch-and-offender-management/ (accessed June 2014).
Mental Health Foundation (2007). The Fundamental Facts: The latest facts and figures on mental health. Available online at http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/fundamental-facts/ (accessed December 2014).
Ministry of Justice (2006). Making Sense of Human Rights. Available online at http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/human-rights/human-rights-making-sense-human-rights.pdf (accessed June 2014).
Moore, B. (1996). Risk Assessment: A Practitioner’s Guide to Predicting Harmful Behaviour. London: Whiting and Birch.
Morris, N. and Rothman, D. (eds) (1995). The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mullen, P. (1999). Dangerous people with severe personality disorder: British proposals for managing them are glaringly wrong — and unethical. British Medical Journal, 319, 1146–1147. Available online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1116939/pdf/1146.pdf (accessed June 2014).
National Institute for Mental Health (2003). Inside Outside: Improving Mental Health Services for Black and Minority Ethnic Communities in England. Available online at http://snipurl.com/28zsg9p (accessed June 2014).
Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, State and Utopia. Oxford: Blackwell.
Peay, J. (1994). Mentally disordered offenders. In M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (1st edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Peay, J. (2012). Mentally disordered offenders, mental health and crime. In M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Criminology ( 5th edition ). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Porter, R. (2002). Madness: A Brief History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Prior, P. (2007). Mentally disordered offenders and the European Court of Human Rights. International journal of law and psychiatry, 30 (6), 546–557.
Read, J. and Haslam, N. (2004). Public opinion: Bad things happen and can drive you crazy. In J. Read, L. Mosher and R. Bentall (eds). Models of Madness: Psychological, Social and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia. London: Routledge.
Richardson, G. (2005). The European convention and mental health law in England and Wales: Moving beyond process?, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 28 (2), 127–139.
Sainsbury Centre (2008). In the Dark: the mental health implications of imprisonment for public protection. Available online at http://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/pdfs/In_the_dark.pdf (accessed June 2014).
Sandel, M. (2009). Justice: What’s the right thing to do? London: Penguin.
Scott, D. and Codd, H. (2010). Controversial issues in prisons. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Scull, A. (2005). Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Shalev, S. (2008). A Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement. London: Mannheim Centre for Criminology, London School of Economics. Available online at: www.solitaryconfinement.org/sourcebook (accessed June 2014).
Shalev, S. (2009). Supermax: Controlling risk through solitary confinement. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Stewart, D. (2008). The problems and needs of newly sentenced prisoners: results from a national survey. Available online at http://snipurl.com/28y2jx7 (accessed June 2014).
Strawson, P. (1960). ‘Freedom and Resentment’, as reprinted in G. Watson (ed.) (1982) Free Will. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available also online at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwstrawson1.htm (accessed May 2014).
Thornicroft, G., Brohan, E., Rose, D., Sartorius, N., Leese, M., INDIGO Study Group. (2009). Global pattern of experienced and anticipated discrimination against people with schizophrenia: a cross-sectional survey. The Lancet, 373 (9661), 408–415.
Tyrer, P., Coombs, N., Ibrahimi, F., Mathilakath, A., Bajaj, P., Ranger, M.,… and Din, R. (2007). Critical developments in the assessment of personality disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 190 (49), s51–s59.
Uggen, C., Manza, J. and Behrens, A. (2004). ‘Less than the average citizen’: stigma, role transition and the civic reintegration of convicted felons. In S. Maruna and R. Immarigeon (eds). After Crime and Punishment: Pathways to offender reintegration. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
United Nations (1991). The protection of persons with mental illness and the improvement of mental health care. Available online at http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/46/a46r119.htm (accessed June 2014).
van Zyl Smit, D. (2007). Prisoners’ Rights. In Y. Jewkes (ed.). Handbook on Prisons. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
Ward, T. and Brown, M. (2004). The good lives model and conceptual issues in offender rehabilitation. Psychology, Crime & Law, 10 (3), 243–257.
Ward, T. and Maruna, S. (2007). Rehabilitation. London: Routledge.
Watkins, T., Lewellen, A. and Barrett, M. (2001). Dual Diagnosis: An Integrated Approach to Treatment. London: Sage.
Webb, D. (1999). A balance of possibilities: some concluding notes on rights, risks and the mentally disordered offender. In D. Webb and R. Harris (eds). Mentally Disordered Offenders: Managing people nobody owns. London: Routledge.
Wilson, D. (2014). Pain and Retribution: A Short History of British Prisons, 1066 to the Present. London: Reaktion Books.
Zimmerman, M. (2011). The Immorality of Punishment. Calgary: Broadview Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 Rob Canton
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Canton, R. (2016). Troublesome Offenders, Undeserving Patients? The Precarious Rights of Mentally Disordered Offenders. In: Winstone, J. (eds) Mental Health, Crime and Criminal Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137453884_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137453884_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-45387-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-45388-4
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)