Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T02:02:53.315Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Negotiation of Involuntary Civil Commitment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Dan A. Lewis ,
Edward Goetz ,
Mark Schoenfield ,
Andrew C. Gordon  and
Eugene Griffin
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Involuntary commitment to mental hospitals has been a topic of scholarly interest for the last twenty years. That interest has resulted in dozens of studies which have informed the legal reform of many state commitment statutes. In this paper we analyze the organizational context in which the decision to commit takes place. Relying on observations of the commitment process in an urban setting, we discuss the negotiating among the actors involved in the decision to commit. Our data suggest that formal disposition to involuntarily commit accounts for only a small percentage of those held at the hospital against their will. Court procedures and professional persuasion are used to coerce citizens into “voluntary” stays at the hospital in order to avoid court proceedings. We conclude with some thoughts about the meaning of commitment rates in light of these findings.

Type
Research Note
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , 1984 , pp. 629 - 649
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Law and Society Association

References

AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION (1983) “Guidelines for Legislation on the Psychiatric Hospitalization of Adults,” 140 American Journal of Psychiatry 672.Google Scholar
ALSCHULER, Albert W. (1968) “The Prosecutor's Role in Plea Bargaining,” 36 University of Chicago Law Review 50.Google Scholar
BLUMBERG, Abraham S. (1967) “The Practice of Law as Confidence Game: Organizational Cooptation of a Profession,” 1 Law & Society Review 15.Google Scholar
CHURCH, Thomas T. Jr. (1976) “Plea Bargains, Concessions and the Courts: Analysis of a Quasi-Experiment,” 10 Law & Society Review 377.Google Scholar
EISENSTEIN, James and Herbert, JACOB (1977) Felony Justice. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.Google Scholar
GILBOY, Janet A. and John R., SCHMIDT (1971) “‘Voluntary’ Hospitalization of the Mentally Ill,” 66 Northwestern University Law Review 429.Google Scholar
HAUPT, Donald N. and Sandra M., EHRLICH (1980) “The Impact of a New State Commitment Law on Psychiatric Patient Careers,” 31 Hospital and Community Psychiatry 745.Google Scholar
HEUMANN, Milton (1978) Plea Bargaining. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
HIDAY, Virginia Aldigé (1977) “Reformed Commitment Procedures: An Empirical Study in the Courtroom,” 11 Law & Society Review 651.Google Scholar
HIDAY, Virginia Aldigé-(1981) “Court Discretion: Application of the Dangerousness Standard in Civil Commitment,” 5 Law and Human Behavior 275.Google Scholar
LUCKEY, James W. and John J., BERMAN (1979) “Effects of a New Commitment Law on Involuntary Admissions and Service Utilization Patterns,” 3 Law and Human Behavior 149.Google Scholar
MILLER, Dorothy and Michael, SCHWARTZ (1966)' “County Lunacy Commission Hearings: Some Observations of Commitments to a State Mental Hospital,” 14 Social Problems 26.Google Scholar
MONAHAN, John (1972) “Empirical Analyses of Civil Commitment: Critique and Context,” 11 Law & Society Review 619.Google Scholar
ROSETT, Arthur and Donald P., CRESSEY (1976) Justice by Consent: Plea Bargains in the American Courthouse. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott.Google Scholar
SHUMAN, Daniel W., HEGLAND, Kenney F. and David B., WEXLER (1977) “Arizona's Mental Health Services Act: An Overview and an Analysis of Proposed Amendments,” 19 Arizona Law Review 313.Google Scholar
STONE, Alan A. with assistance of Clifford D. STROMBERG (1975) Mental Health and Law: A System in Transition. Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health, Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency.Google Scholar
SUDNOW, David (1965) “Normal Crimes: Sociological Features of the Penal Code in a Public Defender Office,” 12 Social Problems 255.Google Scholar
WARREN, Carol A.B. (1977) “Involuntary Commitment for Mental Disorder: The Application of California's Lanterman-Petris-Short Act,” 11 Law & Society Review 629.Google Scholar
WARREN, Carol A.B.-(1982) The Court of Last Resort: Mental Illness and the Law. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
ZIMMERMAN, Joel (1982) Involuntary Civil Commitment in Chicago. Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts.Google Scholar