Julie D. Trebilcock - Mental Health and Offending: Care, Coercion and Control

This book explores the controversial relationship between mental health and offending and looks at the ways in which offenders with mental health problems are cared for, coerced and controlled by the criminal justice and mental health systems. It provides a much-needed criminological approach to the field of forensic mental health.

Beginning with an exploration into why the relationship between mental health and offending is so complex, readers will be introduced to a range of perspectives through which mental health and its relationship to offending behaviour can be understood. The book considers the politics surrounding mental health and offending, focusing particularly on the changing policy response to mentally disordered offenders since the mid-1990s. With dedicated chapters concerning the police, courts, secure services and the community, this book explores a range of issues including:

• The tensions between the care, coercion and control of mentally disordered offenders

• The increasingly blurred boundaries between mental health and criminal justice

• Rights, responsibilities, accountability and blame

• Risk, public protection and precaution

• Challenges involved with treatment, recovery and rehabilitation

• Staffing challenges surrounding multi-agency working

• Funding, privatisation and challenges surrounding service commissioning

• Methodological challenges in the field.

Providing an accessible and concise overview of the field and its key perspectives, this book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in mental health offered by criminology, criminal justice, sociology, social work, nursing and public policy departments. It will also be of interest to a wide range of mental health and criminal justice practitioners.

Dr Julie D. Trebilcock is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Middlesex University. Her research has been primarily concerned with the management of violent and sexual offenders with personality disorders under the Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD) Programme, and the more recent Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway. Her particular expertise is with the institutional pathways and legal authority by which high-risk offenders are detained, Parole Board and Mental Health Tribunal decision-making, and the staffing challenges involved with working with offenders with personality disorders.

Dr Samantha K. Weston is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Keele University. Much of her research has focused on how risk prevention measures have been applied to vulnerable and marginalised populations including those who use substances, (potential) victims and (potential) perpetrators of child sexual exploitation and those experiencing mental ill health. This focus has enabled her to explore in more detail how certain, marginalised and vulnerable populations and their behaviour are understood, managed, controlled and responded to.

The field of mental disorder and crime is so all-encompassing as to put off many authors, but not criminologists Trebilcock and Weston. Their Mental Health and Offending: Care, Coercion and Control makes accessible a wealth of material. The book deftly takes the reader through the complex intersection of socio-legal issues pertaining across the criminal justice process as they affect those with mental disorder. Their analysis alone of the recent political landscape makes the book an outstanding contribution.

Jill Peay, Professor of Law, The London School of Economics and
Political Science, UK

This book provides an authoritative and accessible exploration of some of the key dilemmas in offender mental health care. Combining academic rigour and a clear understanding of the issues faced in everyday practice, the authors address the core theme of care vs. control in a wide range of criminal justice settings, from initial contact with police, through custody, to rehabilitation in the community. This book is essential reading for criminal justice students but is also an invaluable resource for mental health professionals who want to better understand some of the core dilemmas in this complex field.

Dr. Colin Campbell, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist,
Kings College London and South London and Maudsley NHS
Foundation Trust, UK

The relationship between mental health and criminal justice has been the source of much contemporary penal policy debate. This clear and comprehensive book allows the reader to grapple with issues ranging from health ethics to the care of those with mental disorders in secure settings. It should be a must read for anyone wanting to understand the complex range of theories, issues and public policy responses to the challenges posed to the seemingly intractable dilemma of how to best serve the needs of those with mental health needs and to ensure that the needs of justice are met.

Anita Dockley, Research Director, The Howard League for
Penal Reform, UK

Care, Coercion and Control

Julie D. Trebilcock and Samantha K. Weston

First published 2020

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Julie D. Trebilcock and Samantha K. Weston

The right of Julie D. Trebilcock and Samantha K. Weston to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-1-138-69792-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-69793-5 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-52037-7 (ebk)

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