Mental Health, Crime and Justice

Mental Health, Crime and Justice brings together original and state of the art contributions from theoretical, empirical, and policy-related scholarship concerned with the ways people with mental health illnesses are understood, ‘managed’, ‘controlled’ and responded to. Drawing on critical scholarship from a variety of disciplines, the collection pays careful attention to the controversial relationship between mental health and crime, as well as key issues relating to justice and social harm. It presents a synthesis of discipline-specific approaches, from law, psychiatry, sociology, and criminology, but will also bridge together developments in both theory and practice. The book explores the relationship between mental health and crime by deconstructing and analysing two important facets of the justice system: (1) the various ways in which people with mental disorder navigate and are navigated through the criminal justice (and forensic mental health) system(s); and (2) how so called ‘problematised populations’ are governed, with a particular emphasis on mental health as an unfolding dimension of social harm. Unique to this volume, well-rehearsed debates are cross-examined with contemporary critiques about social harm and justice. By considering the multifaceted dimensions of violence to include ‘gendered’, ‘structural’, and ‘systemic’, this book provides a nuanced insight that exposes the controversial relationship that is said to exist between mental health and crime. The collection seeks to highlight the harm and injustice that people with mental health disorders are subject to when interacting with the criminal justice system. Samantha Weston is Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her expertise lies within the area of risk prevention and early intervention. Through her research, Samantha has encouraged the use of criminology as an interdisciplinary lens to understand the intersections between health, social care and criminal justice resulting in a wide range of publications including the book, Mental Health and Offending: Care, Coercion and Control (co-authored with Dr Julie Trebilcock) which was published by Routledge in 2019. Julie Trebilcock is Reader in Criminology at Brunel University of London, UK, with nearly fifteen years of experience working in and researching forensic mental health and imprisonment. Julie’s research has been primarily focused with the management of violent and sexual offenders with personality disorder.