Autism Spectrum Disorder, Developmental Disabilities, and the Criminal Justice System


Book Description

For autistic people who find themselves facing a criminal charge, understanding how the features of autism may have contributed to their behaviour can be vital context for their defence. In this insightful book, Nick Dubin explores how and why autistic people get caught up in the criminal justice system. He delves into what steps can be taken to prevent autistic people committing crimes and what should be done to ensure their fair and appropriate treatment if they are charged with a crime. It covers everything from prevention to the aftermath of sentencing, including available counselling and therapy. Nick's personal experience and meticulous research shows that criminal justice can be an oppressive system that misunderstands and stigmatizes autistic people, especially low-risk individuals and those with less criminal responsibility.













The Wiley Handbook on Offenders with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities


Book Description

The essential resource to the most recent research and practice on offenders with intellectual and developmental disabilities The Wiley Handbook on Offenders with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is a comprehensive compendium to the research and evidence supporting clinical work with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who offend or are at risk of offending. With contributions from an international panel of experts, the text reviews the most recent developments in the assessment, treatment and management of various types of offenders with intellectual disabilities including violent offenders, sexual offenders and firesetters. The text also explores the developments in research on risk assessment and management of people with intellectual disabilities who offend or are at risk of offending. In addition, the handbook also contains information on developments in research into the epidemiology of offending in this population, pathways into services and the trajectories of the criminal careers of those who will later go on to offend. This important resource: Includes contributions from expert international researchers and practitioners in the field Describes a range of theoretical, conceptual and ethical assessments as well as treatment and service development issues that are relevant practitioners in clinical practice Presents the ethical-legal considerations that offer a conceptual framework for the handbook Sets out a variety of the most current evidence-based interventions Written for psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses and other mental health professionals, and those in education and training, The Wiley Handbook on Offenders with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities offers a much-needed resource on the latest developments in the field.







Improving Police Response to Persons with Mental Illness


Book Description

The Ghostbusters refrain "Who you gonna call?" typically connotes a lighthearted response to an unusual problem, but in the context of a human being suffering a mental health crisis, the refrain is anything but lighthearted. In an ideal world, "who you gonna call" would be a trained mental health professional. In the real world, the cry for help is usually received by the police. Police respond because there is no one else to assist. Police officers rank mental health crisis situations as far more stressful than crimes in progress. A person, suffering from mental illness is, by definition, not fully rational. Although they are likewise not fully irrational, behavior is unpredictable, and unpredictable behavior for the police is potentially dangerous behavior. As a consequence, outcomes of engagement between law enforcement and mental health consumers are too often tragic. No organization is more concerned about inadequate response than the police themselves. Improving Police Response to Mental Illness provides best practices guidance. A national pool of experts provide both insight and recommendations, ranging from the conceptual, Atypical Situations-Atypical Responses, to the pragmatic, Law Enforcement Training Models. Written specifically for the book, each chapter addresses a given critical component, including social policy, police response alternatives, training, legal constraints, and cooperative agreements with mental health service providers. This is an indispensable volume on the subject of police and mental health and is designed for police practitioners, mental health professionals, and scholars of social policy.







Disability Incarcerated


Book Description

Disability Incarcerated gathers thirteen contributions from an impressive array of fields. Taken together, these essays assert that a complex understanding of disability is crucial to an understanding of incarceration, and that we must expand what has come to be called 'incarceration.' The chapters in this book examine a host of sites, such as prisons, institutions for people with developmental disabilities, psychiatric hospitals, treatment centers, special education, detention centers, and group homes; explore why various sites should be understood as incarceration; and discuss the causes and effects of these sites historically and currently. This volume includes a preface by Professor Angela Y. Davis and an afterword by Professor Robert McRuer.