This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by ÖJESJÖ, L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Law and Psychiatry: Scandinavia in the 1980s

The major policies and practices with regard to the civil and criminal commitment of the mentally ill in the Scandinavian countries during the 1970s and 1980s are described and discussed. Deinstitutionalization, community work, and outpatient treatment within geographically defined sectors have been introduced in all the Nordic countries. At the same time, criminally committed mental patients constitute an increasing proportion of the involuntarily hospitalized population. The special defense of insanity and tests such as McNaughtan are not used in the Scandinavian countries. The handling and disposition of severely mentally ill criminal defendants is closer to the notions of guilty but mentally ill in some U.S. jurisdictions, although in Scandinavia such persons are hospitalized and do not receive penal sentences. Even though forensic psychiatry has come under much criticism, there is still a need for psychiatric evaluations for courts and there is still a need for the provision of mental health treatment, rehabilitation, and follow-up for mentally disordered offenders.

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 484, No. 1, 144-154 (1986)
DOI: 10.1177/0002716286484001011


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?