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Severe personality disorder, treatment engagement and the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012: what you need to know

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Abstract

Empirical research has demonstrated a link between legal coercion and treatment engagement following conviction among those with severe personality disorder. Legal coercive pressures were often applied by the Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP), until it was replaced by the Extended Determinate Sentence by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. In this paper, it is proposed that use of the new determinate sentence will lessen motivation for treatment engagement. One effect of treatment refusal may be greater reliance by the Secretary of State for Justice on his jurisdiction to transfer prisoners due for release to secure hospital transfers under the Mental Health Act 1983. Not only will this risk posturing undermine the principal aim of the Offender Personality Disorder Implementation Pathway to improve treatment engagement among the target group, it will also have negative implications for medical practitioners working in secure forensic hospitals. To demonstrate what is at stake, the paper briefly recapitulates empirical findings familiar to readers of the journal, before drawing on original unpublished data.

Citation

(2016). Severe personality disorder, treatment engagement and the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012: what you need to know. Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, 476 - 488 (12). https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2016.1155227

Acceptance Date Feb 12, 2016
Publication Date Mar 31, 2016
Journal Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology
Print ISSN 1478-9949
Publisher Routledge
Pages 476 - 488 (12)
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2016.1155227
Keywords Severe personality disorder, Treatment engagement, Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP), Extended Determinate Sentence (EDS), Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO 2012), Offender Personality Disorder Pathway Implementatio
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2016.1155227

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