Clugston Bobbie, Green Bob, Phillips Jane, Samaraweera Zara, Ceron Carolina, Gardner Cameron, Meurk Carla, Heffernan Ed
Mental Health Alcohol and Other Drugs Branch, Clinical Excellence Division, Queensland Health, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Forensic Mental Health Group, Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, Wacol, QLD, Australia.
Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2019 Sep 29;26(6):904-919. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2019.1642260. eCollection 2019.
Individuals with a mental illness may be particularly vulnerable during police interviews. Assessing fitness for police interview is vital for ensuring procedural fairness. This article reports the findings of a retrospective review of 31 police interviews of mentally ill persons charged with murder ( = 18) or attempted murder ( = 13) who appeared before the Queensland Mental Health Court. Police interviews were conducted for all murder and 50% of attempted murder cases. Possible or overt mental illness symptoms were present in all interviews. Symptoms of mental illness were pervasive in 36.7% of interviews, intermittent in 43.3% of interviews and seldom in 20% of interviews. Support persons were present for 9.7% of interviews, and legal representation was not present for any interview. These findings highlight the need to enhance access to support persons during interviews. Intersectoral collaboration between mental health services, forensic medical officers, police, public guardians and the legal sector is needed.
患有精神疾病的人在接受警方询问时可能特别脆弱。评估接受警方询问的适宜性对于确保程序公正至关重要。本文报告了对31起昆士兰精神健康法庭审理的被控谋杀（n = 18）或谋杀未遂（n = 13）的精神病患者的警方询问进行回顾性审查的结果。所有谋杀案以及50%的谋杀未遂案件都进行了警方询问。所有询问中都存在可能或明显的精神疾病症状。精神疾病症状在36.7%的询问中普遍存在，在43.3%的询问中间歇出现，在20%的询问中很少出现。9.7%的询问有支持人员在场，所有询问均无法律代表在场。这些结果凸显了在询问期间增加支持人员参与的必要性。需要精神健康服务机构、法医、警方、公共监护人及法律部门之间开展跨部门协作。
