Therapeutic Jurisprudence as a Needed Framework for a Behavioral Health Integrated Criminal Justice System

Abstract

Increasingly, psychologists and other mental health professionals are working with the court order and offender populations in the human service and the criminal justice systems as a result of the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. A therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) framework is offered as and integrative paradigm, which aims to serve the best interests of the community, while nevertheless limiting the overly punitive and unmerited aspects of offender treatment. A therapeutic jurisprudence framework requires a legal system informed by the research of psychology and integration of the mental health practice system with the criminal justice system. This paper calls for a broader adoption of the TJ approach across the criminal justice systems.