Mental Health and Crime

This book will be written during a period when the relationship between mental health and crime is likely to be perceived through a lens dominated by risk, fear and attributed dangerousness. It is likely that any new law will build on the recent trend of moving mental health law in the direction of penal law and away from medical law. This will make the position of mentally disordered offender more precarious than it has been: in the bulk of the years since 1959 our approach to mentally disordered offenders has been relatively liberal and humanitarian. If the government's new Mental Health Act reflects its most recent policy statements, as illustrated by the draft bill and the white paper, there will be a significant shift in policy and practice towards an approach which entails less understanding and more condemnation. Whether this approach is justified in terms of the available empirical evidence and our developing obligations in respect of Human Rights Law will be examined in the book. There will also be a prescription for an alternative evidence based approach.