Adult defendants with learning disabilities and the criminal courts

Authors:
TALBOT Jenny, JACOBSON Jenny
Journal article citation:
Journal of Learning Disabilities and Offending Behaviour, 1(2), July 2010, pp.16-26.
Publisher:
Emerald

Following on the Prison Reform Trust’s ‘No One Knows’ programme (2006-2009) briefing papers were published (Appendix 1). This paper acknowledges that 5-10% of offenders in the UK are people with learning disabilities (LD) and have few provisions made to ensure that they understand and can participate effectively in the criminal justice proceedings of which they are a part. These authors advise that if people with LD cannot participate effectively, prosecution is often deemed inappropriate and they may be diverted from criminal justice into health care. This article defines the legal framework in terms of the ‘fitness to plead’, ‘right to a fair trial’, ‘Disability Discrimination Act 2005’ and the inclusion agenda. It also details defendants’ own accounts of court experiences. The article then describes measures, such as liaison and diversion schemes, which could be put into place to support and maximise defendants’ changes of participating effectively in the law courts. A final section entitled ‘court disposals’ deals with outcomes is terms of diversion away from the criminal justice system, using the Mental Health Act 1983, as amended in 2007. These authors claim, in terms of statutory provision, a lack of parity between vulnerable witnesses and vulnerable defendants, and in the absence of effective screening procedures to identify defendants’ LDs, support needs often go unrecognised and unmet.

Subject terms:
law courts, learning disabilities, offenders, adults, criminal justice, diversion;
Location(s):
United Kingdom
Link:
Journal home page
ISSN online:
2042-8693
ISSN print:
2042-0927

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