NCJ Number
177105
Date Published
1997
Length
236 pages
Annotation
This study explored and clarified the nature of implicit theories currently held about distinct types of psychopathological and criminal behavior by respondents who represent a range of agencies and groups: the general lay population (students and politicians), criminal justice (police), mental health (mental health practitioners), and social services (social workers and probation officers).
Abstract
The study is a factorial experimental survey that used a mail questionnaire; semi-structured interviews were also conducted to provide supplementary qualitative data. Of the four case vignettes used in the experimental design, two described the key symptomalogical behavior that underlies paranoid schizophrenia, and two referred to the behavioral symptoms commonly associated with depressive psychosis. Each of these vignettes was further manipulated through the inclusion or otherwise of a criminal-offense condition. The survey's measuring instrument, which was completed by the 961 respondents after reading a single case vignette, examined the three main scientific theories used to explain various psychopathological states (medical, moral, and psychosocial) along several dimensions (etiology, behavior, treatment, function of the hospital, prognosis, and rights and duties of the patient and society). Factor analysis revealed three principal components: "sick" role, medical-control, and social-treatment. Using these implicit paradigms as a baseline, a multi-way analysis of variance showed significant differences in perception across the study's main treatment (type of mental disorder, type of criminal offense) and sociodemographic variables (age, gender, group surveyed, and previous experience of the mentally ill). The results are discussed in terms of each multi-agency group's approach toward the various treatment conditions as well as the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for criminological and clinical practice. 32 tables, 7 figures, a 342-item bibliography, and a subject index