Role of the mental health professional in sentencing

1
Role of the mental health professional in
sentencing

• Assoc Prof Sandy Simpson
• Mason Clinic
• University of Auckland
• Sandy.Simpson_at_waitematadhb.govt.nz

2
Introduction

• Issues
• Mentally abnormal persons appearing for sentence
• Public demand for protection against those who
  are thought to present risk
• Trends away from sanctions on individuals, to
  detention of classes of persons
• Where do clinicians fit in these processes?

3
Mental health professional roles

• Issues of dual agency
• Not a normal medical role
• 3 motivations
• A desire for public protection
• To assist and help offenders
• To study and understand
• Are criminal justice protections eg Miranda type
  warnings, sufficient?

4
Efficacy

• Daubert criteria and expertise
• Do the legal questions asked at sentence meet
  criteria of having a body of scientific evidence
  that may be applied to them?

5
Sentencing consideration of offenders with health
needs

• Allows within clinical ethics and with definition
  of the limits of confidentiality
• Meets expertise criteria as treatability and
  benefits have a body of expertise that can be
  brought to the task

6
Sentencing assessments of risk related issues

• Examples include preventive detention,
  discretionary life sentences, longer than
  commiserate sentences and aspects of parole laws
• Problems in efficacy, and problems in ethics
• what are the wider interests of justice?
• What are the effects on treating relationships?

7
A tentative synthesis?
8
Necessary protections

• Explanation of the nature and extent of the
  evaluation
• Lack of confidentiality
• Clear separation of treating and assessing roles
• No treatment relationship
• Use of the assessment for the question asked, not
  later used for other purpose, without consent