Psychological Jurisprudence: Critical Explorations In Law, Crime, And Society (S U N Y Series in New Directions in Crime and Justice Studies)

251 Pages·2004·0.93 MB·English

by  Bruce A. Arrigo

Psychological
Jurisprudence
SUNY series on New Directions in Crime and Justice Studies
Austin T.Turk,editor
Psychological Jurisprudence
Critical Explorations
in Law, Crime, and Society
Edited by
Bruce A. Arrigo
State University of New York Press
Published by
State University of New York Press,Albany
© 2004 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Psychological jurisprudence :critical explorations in law,crime,and society /
edited by Bruce A.Arrigo.
p.cm.— (SUNY series in new directions in crime and justice studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-6151-3 (hardcover :alk.paper) — ISBN 0-7914-6152-1
(pbk.:alk.paper)
1. Forensic psychology. 2.Insanity—Jurisprudence. 3.Crime—Psychological
aspects. I.Arrigo,Bruce A. II.Series.
K2289.P79 2004
340'.19—dc22
2004007830
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface vii
1. The Critical Perspective in Law-Psychology Research:
New Directions in Citizen Justice and Radical Social Change 1
Bruce A.Arrigo
2. Anarchic Insurgencies:The Mythos of Authority and the
Violence of Mental Health 43
Christopher R.Williams
3. A Critical Perspective on Freud’s Theory of Parricide
and Crime in General 75
Phillip C.H.Shon
4. Media Images,Mental Health Law,and Justice:A Constitutive
Response to the “Competency”of Theodore Kacyznski 99
Michael P.Arena and Bruce A.Arrigo
5. The Diminishing Sanctity of Youth:Contributions from
General and Family Systems Theory 127
Jeffrey L.Helms and Bruce A.Arrigo
6. Recent Perspectives on Penal Punitiveness 155
Véronique Voruz
7. Is Rationalization Good for the Soul? Resisting “Responsibilization”
in Corrections and the Courts 179
Shadd Maruna
v
vi CONTENTS
8. Prospects for Justice at the Law-Psychology Divide:
An Agenda for Theory,Research,and Practice 201
Bruce A.Arrigo
About the Contributors 231
Index 235
Preface
OVERVIEW
The field of law and psychology (or law-psychology-crime more generally)
emerged more than three decades ago committed to effecting meaningful,
sustainable change for persons funneled through various systems of institu-
tional control (e.g.,the systems of criminal justice,mental health,social wel-
fare,children and youth services).The belief was that the values and insights
of psychology (and psychiatry) could humanize the experiences of people
subjected to these (totalizing) apparatuses in ways that would foster,among
other things, justice, empowerment, dignity, and social well-being. Regret-
tably,mental health law research,policy,and practice has substantially failed
to advance its original goals.Indeed,while we have come to learn a great deal
about such matters as jury selection, eyewitness testimony, competency to
stand trial,psychopathy,and the like,we know very little about the cultural,
political, economic, social, and philosophical forces that inform such con-
cerns. As a consequence, while our technical sophistication on these (and
related) law-psychology issues has increased, the connections between this
important knowledge and citizen justice,social change,law’s legitimacy,con-
sumer empowerment,and the like,have been neglected or,worst,ignored.
Admittedly,some attempts have been made to draw attention to the fail-
ings of the law-psychology-crime movement to live up to its initial objectives.
Typically,however,these works identify the shortcomings of the field,call for
limited or incremental improvements,or acknowledge the need for widespread
change without proposing a systematic strategy for reform.In those isolated
instances where radical psycholegal scholars have proposed different (or new)
approaches to humanizing the law,their efforts have been largely speculative
vii
viii PREFACE
or have been based on selected insights from one or two critical philosophical
frames of reference (e.g.,chaos theory,anarchism,political economy analysis,
postmodernism), without something more. As a result, while this radical
agenda for transformation appears most promising,it has yet to be understood
fully and to be embraced completely within the academy.Most recently,I have
explored the epistemological assumptions of a number of intellectual prisms
(e.g., feminism, Marxism, postmodernism) within or linked to radical
psychology, arguing that their individual and collective insights represent a
blueprint for wholesale change at the law-psychology-crime divide (Arrigo,
2002a).In this article,I defined my approach as critical psychological jurispru-
dence;a strategy that investigated contemporary culture’s appreciation for law
and mental health in various civil and criminal contexts.Here,too,I note that
my overall strategy was mostly metatheoretical, focusing on underexamined
models that could be the basis for future theoretical, empirical, and policy
inquiries.
Psychological Jurisprudence:Critical Explorations in Law,Crime,and Soci-
ety charts a new and necessary direction in forensic psychological research
and practice.Mindful of the cultural and social forces that manufacture and
sustain psycholegal decision-making, this anthology critically investigates
how the radical agenda could meaningfully return the law-psychology-crime
movement back to its original purpose of promoting citizen justice and social
well-being.By focusing on selected,although key,controversies (e.g.,predict-
ing dangerousness,adolescent identity) and exploring each on the basis of at
least one critical theoretical frame of reference (e.g., anarchism, general/
family systems theory), we learn something more or something other about
whether (and for whom) justice is advanced by prevailing forensic psycholog-
ical policies and practices. In this context, then, critical psychological
jurisprudence gets underneath, behind, over, around, and through issues or
controversies, exposing the cultural, political, economic, social, and philo-
sophical forces that generate and/or sustain them in the mental health law
arena.Moreover,critical psychological jurisprudence,through its reliance on
radical thought, explains where and how alternative strategies of sense
making (e.g., feminist jurisprudence, psychoanalysis) produce fuller, more
complete expressions of dignity,autonomy,empowerment,and so on regard-
ing these (and similar) psycholegal matters.
PSYCHOLOGICAL JURISPRUDENCE:
SOME PRELIMINARY COMMENTS
The critical agenda in psychological jurisprudence is still in its infancy.
Selected articles and book chapters are now appearing.Interestingly,however,
Preface ix
full-length monographs and edited texts have yet to be developed. Recent
book-length projects consistent with the theme of radical psychological
jurisprudence include the works of Williams & Arrigo (2001) and Arrigo
(2002b).The former project examined how the insights of chaos theory and
nonlinear dynamics could re-frame many pressing civil mental health law con-
troversies in ways more consistent with citizen justice,psychological human-
ism,and social well-being.The latter project relied on the insights of various
radical frames of reference to fashion an argument regarding those conscious
and unconscious forces that reduce difference (i.e.,mental illness) to sameness
(i.e.,mental wellness) wherein medicine sanitizes and law legitimizes punish-
ment for psychiatric citizens.Neither of these books specifically examined the
domain of psychological jurisprudence.In addition,these works did not con-
sider how the critical agenda could reveal the cultural and social forces under-
scoring decision making at the crossroads of law and psychology, liberating
and,ultimately,transforming these practices in the process.
Psychological Jurisprudence:Critical Explorations in Law,Crime,and Soci-
ety endeavors to fill this gap in the literature. Building on the developing
insights of the radical agenda and its wholesale commitment to meaningfully
recasting many of the debates in forensic psychology,this edited volume lays
out what direction psycholegal research can and must take if justice and
humanism are to be realized in theory, research, and policy. As an original,
timely,and provocative contribution to the social science and medicine liter-
ature,this book has crossover appeal for the related fields of criminology,law,
psychology, sociology, and public policy. As a scholarly text, Psychological
Jurisprudence is written for upper-division undergraduate and lower-division
graduate students. It is conceptually animated, mindful of its appeal for a
broad audience of academicians,mental health practitioners,social activists,
and policy analysts.At the same time,the book is practical,grounded in the
everyday dilemmas found within civil and criminal mental health law.The
volume can be used as a supplemental text in such courses as law and psy-
chology,sociology of crime,law and society,cultural studies,law and medi-
cine,criminal behavior,law and social control,and social problems.
As a stimulating and insightful contribution to the field of crime and jus-
tice studies, Psychological Jurisprudence: Critical Explorations in Law, Crime,
and Society provides a comprehensive assessment of this emerging approach
to interpreting forensic psychology, investigates several thorny and complex
controversies at the law-psychology-crime divide, and explains how greater
prospects for justice and humanism are attainable through a sustained
engagement with critical inquiry. Reaching beyond disciplinary specific
boundaries,established and new scholars from law,psychology,sociology,and
criminal justice rely on the insights of cultural and literary criticism,psycho-
analysis,philosophy,feminist studies,and more to inform their analyses.