NCJ Number
183183
Journal
Alternatives to Incarceration Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: Spring 2000 Pages: 27-30
Editor(s)
Thomas S. Kapinos
Date Published
2000
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Individual judges, trial courts, and State court systems are adopting a problem-solving orientation to their work, one distinct from the traditional model of the disinterested magistrate, and therapeutic jurisprudence is proposed a new approach to incorporating mental health and related disciplines in the field of law.
Abstract
In the new model, problem is defined expansively to include a wide range of behavioral and social problems that arise in the community. Although courts are establishing problem-solving partnerships, they lack a coherent strategy comparable to community policing. Therapeutic jurisprudence is proposed as a problem-solving approach that focuses on justice, rights, and equality issues and embodies an ethic-of-care perspective. Restorative justice and community justice are related approaches to problem-solving that offer the field of therapeutic jurisprudence potential strategies for achieving therapeutic outcomes. Therapeutic jurisprudence is intended to achieve court and community collaboration and is based on the premise that attending to both individuals and issues involved in a case leads to more effective dispositions. At the individual case level, therapeutic jurisprudence suggests that judges look for "psycho-judicial soft spots," areas in which judicial system actions may lead to anti-therapeutic consequences. At the court level, therapeutic jurisprudence has been adopted at the organizational level in the form of special court programs or specialized courts. Although some therapeutic outcomes can be achieved at either the individual case level or the court organizational level, some must be addressed at the policy level. Alternative approaches for implementing therapeutic jurisprudence are discussed. 2 photographs