This selection of essays asks rather than answers questions. It is divided into five sections which explore various areas of research into the criminal justice system and the mentally disordered. The first section aims to examine the nature of the relationship between offending and mental disorder, in essence, how much is causation, how much is correlation, and what consequences follow? Do the mentally disordered deserve their just measure of punishment, or alternatively, can the justice process itself be therapeutic to those with such needs? The second section addresses some of the conceptual and methodological problems which impede a full understanding of the issues. It explores the perspective of those who seek to explain criminal behaviour on the basis of individual factors, at odds with those who locate explanatory force in the more general social processes. Section three takes a look at the way in which the justice process deals with the mentally disordered, from early involvement by the police, through assored diversion schemes and special defenses, via the problems of sentencing and to the prevalence of disorder within incarcerated populations. At each level it is evident that there is a degree of discretion operating. Section four looks at the ethical and moral problems which arise when psychiatrists involve themselves with the criminal process and, in particular, in the use of preventive "longer than normal" sentences. This touches on the debate over whether psychiatrists should be involved, however tenuously, with the death penalty. The final section deals with the topic of dangerous mentally disordered offenders. In so doing the selection of articles seeks to expose some of the mythology around this topic, concluding that dangerousness, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder.
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