Involuntary commitment

Abstract: In response to a controversy concerning whether the stigma of mental illness has declined significantly in the United States in the past several decades, we assessed changes in public perceptions that mentally ill people are violent. Specifically, we compared answers to an open-ended question regarding respondents' understanding of the term “mental illness” from two nationally representative surveys, one conducted in 1950 and one in 1996. In an earlier paper, we reported the finding that perceptions of violence not only failed to decrease but actually increased significantly between 1950 and 1996. In this paper, we explore the possibility that the dangerousness criterion for involuntary commitment, widely adopted in the United States beginning in the 1960s, has contributed to the unexpected increase in perceptions that mentally ill people are dangerous. We find that, among respondents who mention violence in their description of a mentally ill person, the percentage who use “dangerous to self or others” phrasing to indicate this belief increased substantially, from 4.2% in 1950 to 44.0% in 1996. Moreover, eliminating these respondents from consideration, there was a slight decrease in perceptions of violence between 1950 and 1996. We discuss the possibility that the adoption of the dangerousness criterion, which was intended to protect the civil liberties of mentally ill persons, may also have had the unintended consequence of increasing the stigma of mental illness in the United States.

Abstract: As a result of developments in pharmacology, stricter standards for involuntary commitment, and changes in public expenditures, there has been a dramatic decline in the capacity of public psychiatric hospitals to maintain America's most severely mentally ill Psychiatric deinstitutionalization has led to an increased presence of persons with mental illness in urban areas, many “falling through the cracks” of community-based services This is hypothesized to have contributed to homelessness, crime, and arrests Individual-level research has documented disproportionate and increasing numbers of mentally ill persons in jails and prisons It has also found higher rates of violence and arrest among persons with mental illness compared to the general population This study takes a macro-level social control approach and examines the relationships between psychiatric hospital capacity, homelessness, and crime and arrest rates using a sample of eighty-one US cities I find that public psychiatric hospital capacity has a statistically significant negative effect on crime and arrest rates, and that hospital capacity affects crime and arrest rates in part, through its impact on homelessness In addition, I find no crime-reducing effect of private and general psychiatric hospital capacity

Abstract: Preventing Sexual Violence: How Society Should Cope With Sex Offenders systematically critiques the current treatment of sex offenders in an effort to determine how best to prevent reoffending without infringing on the rights of citizens. The book offers the latest data about sex offenders and the novel and powerful legal measures enacted to prevent sexual violence. In recent years, states have initiated programs for sex offenders involving involuntary commitment, mandatory registration, community notification, and even chemical castration. The author identifies which new strategies work, which strategies are based on false assumptions, and which should be modified or abandoned. In addition to recommending ways to improve programs, the author focuses on an effective risk management program that could be expanded and reproduced nationwide. In community protection programs that use risk management, offenders receive punishment, monitoring, and control adjusted to their level of risk for reoffending. The author details how recent research has made progress in identifying which groups of sexually violent offenders pose the greatest risk for reoffending, and how to effectively reduce that risk for this population. This book provides criminal justice professionals, clinicians working with sexually violent offenders, and policy makers with a clear and realistic plan for humanely coping with sex offenders and reducing further sexual violence.