How might we best manage those who have offended but have mental vulnerabilities? How are risks identified, managed and minimised? What are ideological differences of care and control, punishment and therapy negotiated in practice? These questions are just some which are debated in the eleven chapters of this book. Each with their focus on a given area, authors raise the challenges, controversies, dilemmas and concerns attached to this particular context of delivering justice.
Taking insights on imprisonment, community punishments and forensic services, this book provides a broad analysis of environments. But it also casts a critical light on how punishment of the mentally vulnerable sits within public attitudes and ideas, policy discourses, and the ways in which those seen to present as risky and dangerous are imagined.
Written in a clear and direct style, this book serves as a valuable resource for those studying, working or researching at the intersections of healthcare and criminal justice domains. This book is essential reading for students and practitioners within the fields of criminology and criminal justice, social work, forensic psychology, forensic psychiatry, mental health nursing and probation.
About the Author: Paul Taylor is Head of the Department of Social and Political Science at the University of Chester, UK. His research is interdisciplinary, drawing together areas of criminology with the more general concerns of culture within public service/armed forces occupations. Further, he writes and researches on a range of substantive issues relating to biography, including: mentally vulnerable individuals and the criminal justice process; ageing, welfare and punishment; and criminal justice practitioner well-being.
Sharon Morley is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chester, UK. Her research and publications have focused on a wide range of criminological topics. Her main research has focused on narrative accounts of young women and their everyday experiences of violence, dating violence, precautionary strategies, and gender, space and self-regulation. More recently her research is concerned with female offences who have mental health issues, particularly the punishment of women offenders who have mental health issues. Sharon's books include the Series of Companions in crime and criminology, in this series she edited the Companion to state power, liberties and rights (Policy Press). Her publications also include articles on mental health, victimisation and injustice.
Jason Powell is Professor of Social Gerontology and Associate Dean of Health and Social Care at The University of Staffordshire. He is an elected Academician of The Academy of Urbanism. Dr. Powell has interests in interdisciplinary research focusing on ageing, Foucault and social policy. He has held many research and knowledge exchange grants in the UK, EU and Asia and disseminated his research globally with many publications, including 72 academic books and top ranked refereed journal articles. These include The Journal of Applied Gerontology; Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law; and The Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. Dr. Powell is Editor-in-Chief of Illness, Crisis & Loss (SAGE).
