Race, gender, and mental illness in the criminal justice system

Author / Creator

Thompson, Melissa, 1973-

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Online

Physical

Summary

Annotation Thompson analyzes the process through which criminal responsibility is constructed and reproduced on the basis of race and gender. While feminist literature points to constructions of fe...

Annotation Thompson analyzes the process through which criminal responsibility is constructed and reproduced on the basis of race and gender. While feminist literature points to constructions of female offenders as mad and male offenders as bad, overall the results of this research do not support this perspective. Instead, major findings include strong and consistent evidence that African American defendants are less likely to receive psychiatric evaluations to determine mental status at the time of the offense. This implies that criminal justice officials have racial perceptions about the causes of crime; consequently, African American defendants may be portrayed as normal criminals who are held to a different level of responsibility than non-African Americans.

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