The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders in the courts.

The DSM is designed with the intention that it will be used in clinical and research contexts, not as a guide for the courts. Increasingly, from DSM to DSM-III-R, the introductory cautionary statement in the manual has warned against its use in the judicial context. The drafters of the DSM faced a choice and might have chosen to address in some greater detail those disordered behaviors that do have legal relevance in that they arise with some degree of regularity in the courts. The following essay examines this choice and its consequences.