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The use of compulsory care and treatment for mentally disordered offenders

 

Compulsory treatment under criminal procedures 2008-09 and 2009-10

AR-09-10-Table18

 

Trends in the use of compulsory treatment under CPSA 2000-10

 

Fig-18

 

 

Episodes of compulsion under criminal proceedings, by age and gender 2009-10

 

AR-09-10-Table19

 

Community-based compulsion orders 2009-10

 

AR-09-10-Table20

 

Our interest in this

People with mental disorder who are convicted of a criminal offence may be dealt with by being placed on an order under the Criminal Procedures (Scotland) Act 1995 (CPSA) which requires them to be treated in hospital or occasionally, in the community. In some cases, additional restrictions are placed on the individual and any lessening of their security status or suspension of detention has to be approved by Scottish Minister. An individual may be subject to a number of different orders before final disposal of the case which may be by Compulsion Order (CO) or Compulsion Order and Restriction Order (CORO).

What we found

There is a general downward trend in the use of mental health orders under the CPSA. The jump in the number of assessment orders that we recorded last year has not been repeated. Last year we wondered whether this would explain to some extent the gender difference in the use of emergency detention certificates (EDCs), with many more women than men being subject to EDCs and assessment orders being used almost exclusively for men. Whilst the difference is less this year, this is largely down to a fall in the use of EDCs for women.