Defendants with intellectual disability and autism spectrum conditions: the perspective of clinicians working across three jurisdictions

McCarthy, Jane, Chaplin, Eddie, Hayes, Susan, Søndenaa, Erik, Chester, Verity, Morrissey, Catrin, Allely, Clare S. and Forrester, Andrew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2510-1249 2022. Defendants with intellectual disability and autism spectrum conditions: the perspective of clinicians working across three jurisdictions. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 29 (5) , pp. 698-717. 10.1080/13218719.2021.1976297

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Abstract

he treatment of vulnerable defendants by criminal justice systems or correctional systems varies within and between countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine three legal jurisdictions – New South Wales in Australia; Norway; England and Wales – to understand the extent of variation in practice within the court systems for defendants with intellectual disabilities (ID) and/or autism spectrum conditions (ASC). Two of the jurisdictions had a process for screening in place, either in police custody or at court, but this was not universally implemented across each jurisdiction. All three jurisdictions had a process for supporting vulnerable defendants through the legal system. Across the three jurisdictions, there was variation in disposal options from a mandatory care setting to hospital treatment to a custodial sentence for serious offences. This variation requires further international exploration to ensure the rights of defendants with ID or ASC are understood and safeguarded.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Additional Information:	This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
ISSN:	1321-8719
Funders:	Guy's and St Thomas' Trustees
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	4 November 2021
Date of Acceptance:	4 October 2021
Last Modified:	04 May 2023 01:25
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/145295

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