Mentally Disordered Suspects, Defendants and Offenders

By looking at the position of people with a mental disorder in the criminal justice process, this module will explore aspects of the relationship between law and psychiatry. You'll consider psychiatric explanations of criminality and the rights and interests of mentally disordered people as suspects, defendants and offenders – both within the criminal justice system and the community care system.

Key Topics

In this module you will cover a range of topics including:

• Theories of the relationship between criminality and mental disorder
• Section 136: place of safety or power of arrest?
• The mentally disordered person as suspect
• Diversion from the criminal justice system to the psychiatric health care system
• Insanity, unfitness to plead and diminished responsibility
• Sentencing the mentally disordered offender
• Care in the community for the mentally disordered offender released from prison or hospital
• Dealing with dangerousness

Assessment

There are a number of formative assessments that you complete as part of your studies and forward to your academic tutor for grading and comments.

You'll also take a summative assessment at the end of your module. Summative assessments include coursework, exams or a mix of both. Summative assessments take place twice a year and exam venues are located around the UK. Please note that there are additional summative assessment fees for each module.