Abstract
<p><strong>Objective.</strong> The objective was to review psychiatric involvement in seven prosecutorial workshops on criminal capacity between 2004 and 2009. The aim was to evaluate the changing role of the psychiatrists in the workshops in order to identify areas in forensic psychiatry where prosecutors have a specific need for training, and to identify more suitable methods of training.</p><p><strong>Method.</strong> The workshop programmes, copies of presentations, the number of attending prosecutors at each workshop, informal personal notes from the presenters, suggestions from meetings in preparation for workshops and formatted feedback reports were reviewed. Information from a total of seven workshops was reviewed and interpreted by 2 psychiatrists from Weskoppies Hospital Forensic Psychiatry Unit (WHFPU). <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Results.</strong> The psychiatrists’ involvement increased over the years. Problematic topics that were identified include non-pathological criminal incapacity, child psychiatry and the different roles of the psychiatrist and the psychologist in court. Exposure to practical aspects, interactive workshops with case presentations, discussion groups and audience participation seemed to be the preferred method of training. Attitudes of prosecutors towards psychiatry improved with increased knowledge and understanding of the field, and overall the training was rated as relevant and enriching.</p><p><strong>Conclusion.</strong> Psychiatrists can offer valuable training opportunities to legal professionals about the major mental illnesses and how they can affect criminal capacity, but evaluation of the training should be an ongoing process to address changing needs. Training sessions provide an opportunity for reciprocal sensitisation between the different fields. The ultimate goal is to work towards improved association between the criminal justice and mental health systems.</p>
Highlights
For many centuries there has been an interface between psychiatry and the law, and both the law and forensic psychiatry have undergone significant changes and progression, considerable misunderstandings remain between the two fields.[1]
Many of these misunderstandings became evident to psychiatrists from the Weskoppies Hospital Forensic Psychiatry Unit (WHFPU) during participation in prosecutorial workshops
Since 2007 only one day is used for presentations by legal professionals and one other day is dedicated to investigative psychology, presented by a psychologist who is not affiliated to the WHFPU
Summary
The workshop programmes, copies of presentations, the number of attending prosecutors at each workshop, informal personal notes from the presenters, suggestions from meetings in preparation for workshops and formatted feedback reports were reviewed. Information from a total of seven workshops was reviewed and interpreted by 2 psychiatrists from Weskoppies Hospital Forensic Psychiatry Unit (WHFPU). The psychiatrists from WHFPU who were presenters and facilitators during sessions of the prosecutorial workshops on criminal capacity gathered information on their involvement over a 5-year period (2004 - 2009). The information captured consisted of workshop programmes, copies of WHFPU presentations, the number of attending prosecutors at each workshop, and formatted feedback reports. In addition informal personal notes were captured together with noted suggestions made on meetings between the presenting psychiatrists in preparation for an oncoming workshop. Specific attention was paid to the psychiatrists’ segment of the presentation time in relation to that allocated to other professionals and the number of participating psychiatrists per workshop
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