Mental Health Law and Policy and Crime

Abstract

Throughout history, the US legal system has enacted specific policies designed to address the special needs of persons with a mental illness who come into contact with the system. The system has long recognized the impact of serious mental illness on criminal intent and culpability. For this reason, safeguards are in place to protect from criminal punishment anyone whose impaired mental state at the time of the crime prevented him/her from understanding the wrongfulness of his/her actions, or whose state of mind at the trial impedes the ability to participate in his/her own defense. In addition, therapeutic alternatives to the traditional court‐processing model have been developed to serve as a mechanism by which the criminal justice system can be utilized as an avenue for the treatment of individuals with debilitating mental illness.