Abstract
It is unfortunate to say that the number of people who suffer from a serious mental illness has been drastically increasing in the criminal justice system since the late 1960s. This drastic change has captivated the minds of the public, forced them to develop a fallacious stereotype, and labeled the mentally ill population as wrongdoers. This image, however, is inaccurate. In reality, these people are the victims of a broken system. This paper establishes the victimization that a person with a serious mental illness experiences as they are processed through the criminal justice system. The following elaborates how victimization is exhibited through the three steps of the system: police interactions, court interventions, and correctional procedures.
Recommended Citation
Trejo, Margarita
(2018)
"The Victimization of the Misconceived: The Mentally Ill in the Criminal Justice System,"
Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science: Vol. 6
:
Iss.
1
, Article 6.
https://doi.org/10.31979/THEMIS.2018.0606
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/themis/vol6/iss1/6
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