Causal relationships or casual associations? Assessing the nature and character of mental illness/disorder and crime

Cummins, ID

Abstract

The link between mental illness, violence and other offending remains an area of controversy. The debate can become polarised around two extremes: that no such link exists or the mentally ill as a group are violent. This chapter will place these debates within the context of the development of two interrelated policies – the expansion of the use of imprisonment and deinstitutionalisation. One of the most startling features of social policy development over the past thirty years is the expansion of the use of imprisonment. In the 1970s, criminologists were seriously considering how the prison as an institution was on the verge of disappearing and pondering how it would be replaced as the central penal mechanism in liberal democracies. The overlap between mental health and the criminal justice system is a well-established one. The CJS has become a default provider of mental health care in many instances.  The chapter will conclude with a brief discussion of Penrose’s hypothesis which identified a hydraulic relationship between the use of imprisonment and the use of institutionalised forms of care for mental illness.

Citation

Cummins, I. (2020). Causal relationships or casual associations? Assessing the nature and character of mental illness/disorder and crime. In P. Taylor, S. Morley, & J. Powell (Eds.), Mental Health and Punishments : critical perspectives in theory and practice. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351240611-4

• Online Publication Date: Jun 5, 2020
• Publication Date: Jul 22, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jun 30, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 22, 2022
• Publisher: Routledge
• Book Title: Mental Health and Punishments : critical perspectives in theory and practice
• ISBN: 9780815375159-(print);-9781351240611-(ebook)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351240611-4
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351240611-4
• Related Public URLs: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351240611; https://www.routledge.com/Mental-Health-and-Punishments-Critical-Perspectives-in-Theory-and-Practice/Taylor-Morley-Powell/p/book/9780815375159; https://www.routledge.com/
• Additional Information: Access Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Mental Health and Punishments : critical perspectives in theory and practice on 22nd July 2020, available online: http://www.routledge.com/Mental-Health-and-Punishments-Critical-Perspectives-in-Theory-and-Practice/Taylor-Morley-Powell/p/book/9780815375159