Police Officer Attitudes and Use of Discretion in Situations Involving the Mentally Ill: The Need to Narrow the Focus

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Introduction

The role of the police officer in relation to the mentally ill is best characterized as de facto. Police are habitually called upon when the case involves a person suffering from some psychological disorder and, once on the scene, officers are expected to see the situation through to a suitable resolution Bittner 1967, Cherrett 1995, Green 1997, Husted & Nehemkis 1995, Matthews 1970, Ruiz 1993, Teplin 1984a. As the first, and often only, community resource relied upon by society in response to such circumstances, the police are thrust into a position of providing a type of triage service to the mentally ill that they are neither trained to deliver nor prepared to perform Ainsworth 1995, Bittner 1967, Cherrett 1995, Green 1997, Ruiz 1993. Many scholars argue that this forces the police into a precarious position of being “primary gatekeepers”; that is, they determine whether the mental health or the criminal justice system can best meet the needs of a psychologically disordered individual (e.g., Arrigo 1993, Arrigo 1996, Bittner 1967, Cobb 1972, Cumming, Edell, & Cumming 1965, Hollingshed & Redlich 1958, Liberman 1969, Matthews 1970, Pogrebin 1986, Pogrebin & Poole 1987, Sheridan & Teplin 1981, Sims & Symmonds 1975, Teplin 1984a, Teplin 1984b, Teplin 1985, Teplin, Filstead, Hefter, & Sheridan 1980, Teplin & Pruett 1992, Wachholz & Mullaly 1993).

Several studies have variously endorsed and disputed the contention that society relies upon its law enforcement agents to control disruptive mentally ill persons by way of the mental health or the criminal justice system Bonovitz & Bonovitz 1981, Hiday 1991, Teplin 1983, Teplin 1984a, Teplin 1984b, Teplin 1985. Further, these investigations question whether the increasing unavailability of the former apparatus prompts police to turn to the latter apparatus in order to manage these individuals.

To date, the issues surrounding the relative dispositions of disruptive mentally ill people have been examined on a macro-level. Interestingly, many of the situational factors intrinsic to the individual police–mentally ill citizen encounter that influence these outcomes have been largely ignored. In this article, two such factors are discussed. Both type of police–citizen interaction and police officer style are examined in the context of their potential to influence these encounters and, in turn, determine the outcome of situations involving mentally ill persons. We contend that these situational variables are significant relative to the issue of police discretion. They help us understand how the outcomes of individual interactions can be studied apart from the more policy or resource-oriented factors such as increased numbers of mentally ill people in the community and decreased funding for mental health services Bittner 1967, Menzies 1987, Teplin & Pruett 1992. We suggest that our focus therefore represents an alternative way by which several problems at the crossroads of law, psychiatry, and policing can be addressed.

In this study we first review the literature on the increased rates of interaction between the police and the mentally ill, and we assess the general criminalization debate concerning this constituency. Both matters inform our subsequent analysis on the need to investigate types of police–citizen interactions and police officer styles relative to the eventual disposition of psychologically disordered and disruptive individuals. We conclude by speculating on the relationship between these variables and their potential impact on, and implications for, future research.

Section snippets

Increased Rates of Interaction Between Individual Police and Mentally Ill Citizens

It is widely believed that the police are coming into contact with the mentally ill in record numbers Laberge & Morin 1995, Pogrebin & Poole 1987, Rabkin 1979, Schellenberg et al. 1992, Teplin 1983. There are a variety of reasons for this. The primary explanations include deinstitutionalization and the tightening of civil commitment statutes that took place in the 1970s and 1980s Arrigo 1992a, Arrigo 1992b, Arrigo 1993, Arrigo 1996, Bonovitz & Bonovitz 1981, Green 1997, Laberge & Morin 1995,

The Criminalization Debate

Substantial debate exists over the “criminalization” of the mentally ill. This term was first proposed by Abramson (1972) and has been subsequently examined by numerous researchers Arrigo 1993, Arrigo 1996, Green 1997, Lamb & Grant 1982, Rabkin 1979, Schellenberg et al. 1992, Swank & Winer 1976, Teplin 1984a, Teplin 1984b, Teplin 1985, Teplin & Pruett 1992, Whitmer 1980. Essentially, the hypothesis states that society, via its social order enforcement agents (i.e., the police), has reacted to

Type of Police–Citizen Interactions

Police–citizen interaction types are characterized by factors relating to the nature of the call in which officer assistance is requested as opposed to the outcome of the call itself Brown 1981, Wilson 1968. These factors include the purpose of the call (i.e., to apprehend someone who has violated the law vs. to stop someone who bothers the public), and source of the call (i.e. third-party citizen vs. the police themselves). To date, none of the broad examinations of individual police–mentally

Police Types and the Mentally Ill

The first work attempting to identify the importance of officer-centered factors in affecting the outcomes of police–citizen interactions was Bittner’s (1967) overview of police behavior. Bittner reported that law enforcement agents tended to rely upon informal resolutions to situations in which the mentally disordered were involved, and they were very reluctant to use involuntary hospitalization as a resolution unless absolutely necessary. Although Bittner did acknowledge the police officer’s

Police Type and Police–Citizen Encounter Type: Speculations for Future Research

Persons suffering from acute symptoms of mental illness are frequently erratic and unaware of their effects on those around them. Persons suffering from mental illness are typically preoccupied with issues the rest of us cannot or do not fathom. They can be loud and bothersome to others in their attempts to address perceived needs or fears. Thus, they often fail to exercise judgment in modulating their behavior to suit their surroundings. Depending upon the level of police discretion available,

Summary

Research to date has very effectively highlighted the fact that the mentally ill are vulnerable to systematic criminalization. The reasons cited for this range from decreasing mental health resources, to restrictive civil commitment statutes, to increased numbers of mentally ill citizens in the community as a result of deinstitutionalization. However, the research has also shown that the presence of a criminalization phenomenon is not yet generalizable. The prevailing research emphasizes a

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