hig.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • sv-SE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • de-DE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
ACCOUNTABLE OR NOT ACCOUNTABLE?: SOCIAL WORKERS’ VIEWS ON MENTALLY DISORDERED PERSONS’ LEGAL STATUS
University of Gävle, Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies, Department of Social Work and Psychology.
2013 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

The aim of this thesis was to describe how mentally disordered offenders would be affected by reintroducing the accountability requirement within Swedish legislation, based on social workers’ preconceptions. Mental illness creates a number of issues within criminal justice systems. Almost all countries worldwide have an insanity defense in order to obtain de-criminalization of mentally disordered offenders. However, mentally disordered offenders are criminalized within Sweden’s current legislation. Therefore, the government is proposing a legislative reform. The reform suggests that the accountability requirement will be reintroduced within Swedish legislation. Within this inquiry semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with six forensic social investigators. In light of Becker’s labeling theory and Goffman’s theory of stigma the results reveal social, psychological and behavioral consequences of the new legislation. The participants believe that, de-criminalization provides social and psychological advantages for mentally ill persons. Nevertheless, excusing people from responsibility might produce irresponsible behavior. Since responsibility is an essential part in rehabilitation as well as preventing criminal recidivism. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013. , p. 65
Keywords [en]
Accountability, criminal responsibility, mentally disordered offenders, labeling, stigma
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-16022Archive number: SGSMKINSA-V13-5OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-16022DiVA, id: diva2:688277
Subject / course
Social work
Educational program
Social work – specialisation in international social work (in eng)
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2014-01-24 Created: 2014-01-16 Last updated: 2014-01-24Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

Thesis(1103 kB)232 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 1103 kBChecksum SHA-512
5845a497b2afdee71c1306e0f366cff031ce4ea1bee555cb460544a278e1a99a28b2cfb10ea44ca2b07d433aa75cbf3a7ffc86e25634e60be41e912b00f5b8d6
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

By organisation
Department of Social Work and Psychology
Social Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 232 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 322 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • sv-SE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • de-DE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf