NCJ Number
90369
Date Published
1983
Length
345 pages
Annotation
This examination of psychiatric assessment within the Canadian criminal justice system considers how and why forensic assessments are conducted, who is assessed, the medico-legal context of the assessment, the issues addressed during the assessment, how psychiatric opinions are reached, and the effect of psychiatric opinion on judicial decision.
Abstract
Information for the study was obtained from the sociological, psychological, and psychiatric literature; a detailed analysis of the Metropolitan Toronto Forensic Service in Toronto, Ontario; and a survey of other Canadian forensic psychiatric centers. The review of previous work includes the British, American, and Scandinavian literature. While the book is directed to all persons interested in the relationship between psychiatry and the law, it is particularly for forensic psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, criminologists, government policy planners, psychiatric hospital administrators, correctional workers, and criminal lawyers. The opening chapter indicates the purposes served by forensic assessments and considers the limited literature of studies of judges' opinions about the general purpose of the remands. The second chapter provides descriptions of the various types of brief and extended assessment procedures in current use and mentions some of the problems encountered in psychological evaluations. Another chapter identified certain of the characteristics of the mentally disordered offender, followed by an examination of the discretionary aspects of the psychiatrist's decisions and the organizational relationship between the clinic and the court. Chapter 5 explores the kinds of information which the clinician presumes to be of interest to the court and which are recorded in the recommendation for disposition. The subsequent chapter outlines the characteristics of the client, the clinician, and the context which contribute to both the successes and failures in clinical assessments. Concluding chapters examine what the court does with the psychiatric information and the problems and possibilities inherent in the clinical assessment task. Appendixes present details of the study methodology and findings. About 440 references are provided along with author and subject indexes.