Forty Years After Abramson

Abstract

In the early 1970s, Dr. Marc Abramson, a jail psychiatrist, was the first author to observe in the scholarly literature that people with serious mental illnesses (PSMI) were being criminalized--that is, processed through the criminal justice system instead of the mental health system (Abramson, 1972). This essay examines four common beliefs about the criminalization of PSMI. The first belief is that criminally involved PSMI are homogeneous. A close inspection of their characteristics and pathways into the criminal justice system proves otherwise (Lurigio & Lewis, 1987). PSMI can enter the criminal justice system through criminalization or standard criminal justice processing. Criminalization occurs only when PSMI are arrested for publically displaying the signs and symptoms of serious mental illness (SMI). These arrests are typically for public-order offenses, stemming mostly from psychiatric symptoms, not from a deliberate neglect of the rights of others (Council of State Governments, 2002). Heightened awareness of the problem of PSMI in the criminal justice system resulted in the implementation of diversionary police and court programs, which have decreased the likelihood of the mentally ill being criminalized. PSMI can still be criminalized when contact with the police is mishandled and eventuates into charges for assaulting a police officer or when aggressive public-order policing initiatives sweep people who are homeless, publicly intoxicated, or panhandling into the courts or jail (Lurigio, Snowden, & Watson, 2006; Skeem, Manchak, & Peterson, 2011). Other distinctions among criminally involved PSMI include differences in psychiatric severity and treatment needs as well as the risks for crime, violence, and recidivism. Language: en