NCJ Number
137740
Journal
International Journal of Law and Psychiatry Volume: 15 Dated: (1992) Pages: 157-169
Date Published
1992
Length
92 pages
Annotation
This article identifies differences in the models of man implied in the operations of psychological and legal fields and suggests how conflictual aspects of these model differences can be minimized when these two disciplines must cooperate in addressing criminal behavior.
Abstract
Models of man are rarely defined in such practical disciplines as law and medicine; rather the models are implicit and often covert. Their character and variation develop in the pursuit of specific purposes and through the methods of thought and procedure applied to those purposes. Hence, the diverse general traditions of law and medicine (specifically psychiatry) combine with their varying purposes to determine conflict when the two disciplines share a common purpose. Such conflicts are commonly misperceived according to their superficial and case-specific appearance rather than correctly viewed as based in incongruous models of man implied in the operations of each discipline. This article explores the characteristics of the variety of implied models that originate both in law and psychiatry and identifies the potential and actual model conflicts. This article argues that the degree of conflict between the legal and medical models of man will vary according to model characteristics operative in each case. The author suggests that incongruence will be minimized both by encouraging legal rules that put the two disciplines into inherently "least disjunctive" model interactions and by encouraging law and psychiatry to recognize the implicit varying purposes and models they apply as well as the character of case-specific "model boundaries" and incongruities. 28 references