In the field of mental health law, we entrust decisions with consequences of the utmost gravity. Yet, how do non-lawyers make decisions where the legitimacy of those decisions derives from law? This book attempts to answer this question.

This text explores and reflects upon the debate over law relating to mental disorder and the mentally disordered. Much of the debate has been focused on the tension between public protection and individual civil rights, since much of its impetus has derived from notorious homicides in the community and been directed towards calls for a community treatment order. This book examines the nature of mental illness and its impacts on legal capacity, juxtaposing constructs which arise out of profoundly differing disciplines. It concludes that the contribution of mental health legislation is both...

Does mental disorder cause crime? Does crime cause mental disorder? And if either of these could be proved to be true what consequences should stem for those who find themselves deemed mentally disordered offenders? Mental Health and Crime examines the nature of the relationship between mental disorder and crime. It concludes that the broad definition of what is an all too common human condition - mental disorder - and the widespread occurrence of an equally all too common human behaviour - that of offending - would make unlikely any definitive or easy answer to such questions. For those who...