Emeritus of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Emerita of Clinical Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC, and Chief Psychologist, USC Institute of Psychiatry, Law and Behavioral Sciences, Los Angeles, California, USA.
CNS Spectr. 2020 Apr;25(2):173-180. doi: 10.1017/S1092852919001524. Epub 2019 Oct 10.
One of the major concerns in present-day psychiatry is the criminalization of persons with serious mental illness (SMI). This trend began in the late 1960s when deinstitutionalization was implemented throughout the United States. The intent was to release patients in state hospitals and place them into the community where they and other persons with SMI would be treated. Although community treatment was effective for many, there was a large minority who did not adapt successfully and who presented challenges in treatment. Consequently, some of these individuals' mental condition and behavior brought them to the attention of law enforcement personnel, whereupon they would be subsequently arrested and incarcerated. The failure of the mental health system to provide a sufficient range of treatment interventions, including an adequate number of psychiatric inpatient beds, has contributed greatly to persons with SMI entering the criminal justice system. A discussion of the many issues and factors related to the criminalization of persons with SMI as well as how the mental health and criminal justice systems are developing strategies and programs to address them is presented.
当今精神病学的主要关注点之一是严重精神疾病（SMI）患者的犯罪化。这一趋势始于 20 世纪 60 年代末，当时美国各地实施了非机构化。其目的是将州立医院的患者释放并安置在社区中，以便他们和其他 SMI 患者得到治疗。尽管社区治疗对许多人有效，但也有一小部分人无法成功适应，并且在治疗中带来了挑战。因此，这些人的一些精神状况和行为引起了执法人员的注意，随后他们将被捕入狱。精神卫生系统未能提供足够广泛的治疗干预措施，包括足够数量的精神病住院床位，这使得许多 SMI 患者进入刑事司法系统。本文讨论了与 SMI 患者犯罪化相关的许多问题和因素，以及心理健康和刑事司法系统如何制定战略和方案来解决这些问题。
