Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Mental Health Court Outcomes: A Comparison of Re-Arrest and Re-Arrest Severity Between Mental Health Court and Traditional Court Participants

Mental Health Court Outcomes: A Comparison of Re-Arrest and Re-Arrest Severity Between Mental... Mental health courts have been proliferating across the country since their establishment in the late 1990’s. Although numerous advocates have proclaimed their merit, only few empirical studies have evaluated their outcomes. This paper evaluates the effect of one mental health court on criminal justice outcomes by examining arrests and offense severity from one year before to one year after entry into the court, and by comparing mental health court participants to comparable traditional criminal court defendants on these measures. Multivariate models support the prediction that mental health courts reduce the number of new arrests and the severity of such re-arrests among mentally ill offenders. Similar analysis of mental health court completers and non-completers supports the prediction that a “full dose” of mental health treatment and court monitoring produce even fewer re-arrests. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Law and Human Behavior Springer Journals

Mental Health Court Outcomes: A Comparison of Re-Arrest and Re-Arrest Severity Between Mental Health Court and Traditional Court Participants

Law and Human Behavior , Volume 30 (6) – Oct 12, 2006

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/mental-health-court-outcomes-a-comparison-of-re-arrest-and-re-arrest-50ADwN8XJf

References (50)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association
Subject
Psychology; Law and Psychology; Criminology and Criminal Justice, general; Personality and Social Psychology; Community and Environmental Psychology
ISSN
0147-7307
eISSN
1573-661X
DOI
10.1007/s10979-006-9061-9
pmid
17053948
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Mental health courts have been proliferating across the country since their establishment in the late 1990’s. Although numerous advocates have proclaimed their merit, only few empirical studies have evaluated their outcomes. This paper evaluates the effect of one mental health court on criminal justice outcomes by examining arrests and offense severity from one year before to one year after entry into the court, and by comparing mental health court participants to comparable traditional criminal court defendants on these measures. Multivariate models support the prediction that mental health courts reduce the number of new arrests and the severity of such re-arrests among mentally ill offenders. Similar analysis of mental health court completers and non-completers supports the prediction that a “full dose” of mental health treatment and court monitoring produce even fewer re-arrests.

Journal

Law and Human BehaviorSpringer Journals

Published: Oct 12, 2006

There are no references for this article.