Therapeutic Jurisprudence (therapeutic + jurisprudence)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Perspectives on Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Dependency Court in Cases Involving Battered Mothers

JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JOURNAL, Issue 1 2008
Candice L. Maze
ABSTRACT A qualitative study was conducted involving clients, victim advocates, and judges participating in one of Miami-Dade County's (Florida) "therapeutic" juvenile court based programs, the Dependency Court Intervention Program for Family Violence (DCIPFV). The primary objective of this study was to assess how battered mothers' perceptions of the dependency court judges' actions impacted the women's motivation to take appropriate actions to promote their own, and their child(ren)'s safety. [source]


Infant mental health, child maltreatment, and the law: A jurisprudent therapy analysis,

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2008
James J. Clark
Scholarly and clinical discussions of the legal issues facing infant mental health professionals typically focus on the seemingly intractable differences in philosophies, goals, and approaches inherent in the law and the mental health professions. We argue that forensically informed approaches to practice with very young children can potentially enhance many mental health and child welfare outcomes. This article describes the relatively new conceptual frameworks known as "therapeutic jurisprudence" and "jurisprudent therapy." Using these conceptual frameworks, we analyze representative problems that are typical in infant mental health practice with maltreated children through case examples drawn from their evaluations of children and families in the child protection and legal systems. Demonstrations of how such dilemmas can be approached with enhanced analytic decision-making and practice approaches are presented. We argue that applying such jurisprudent therapy approaches opens up fresh perspectives for evidence-based practices that facilitate creative, rigorous, and intellectually stimulating clinical work. [source]


The Court's Role in Promoting Comprehensive Justice for Pregnant Drug and Alcohol Users

JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2008
Tourine Johnstone
ABSTRACT Drug use during pregnancy is an important social and medical issue. Legislatures and courts have offered a variety of responses, ranging from imprisonment to comprehensive service programs that are rehabilitative in nature. This article discusses the prevalence and effects of prenatal drug use, followed by a presentation of the scope of legal responses and treatment options. Some courts do not provide outreach services for drug-offending mothers, while others may offer a limited range of services. In contrast, a comprehensive justice approach would provide a wide range of health, employment, and social programs for the offender. This approach is based on philosophies of restorative justice, therapeutic jurisprudence, and procedural justice. Such a theory-based comprehensive justice program ultimately benefits mothers, children, and the community. Considerations are offered for judges who seek to implement a comprehensive justice approach to address this important problem. [source]


Maybe He's Depressed: Mental Illness as a Mitigating Factor for Drug Offender Accountability

LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, Issue 3 2009
Leslie Paik
Given the often perplexing relationship between mental illness and substance abuse among offenders, this article looks at how a juvenile drug court staff's presumptions of a youth's mental illness affect its decision-making process. Based on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork at a Southern California juvenile drug court, this article uses Manzo and Travers's "law in action" approach to analyze how the staff readjusts its application of normal remedies (a concept developed by Robert Emerson) designed to respond to a youth's noncompliance when it suspects mental illness may be influencing the youth's actions. In doing so, it highlights how court staff's considerations of youth mental disorders arise out of its everyday work practices. Furthermore, the article discusses how staff negotiations around a youth's mental illness create tensions for the juvenile drug court's accountability-based model of therapeutic jurisprudence, because assessments of mental illness tend to mitigate responsibility for a youth's behavior. [source]