Criminal courts and mental illness:an analysis of the efficacy of the assessment and referral court list of the magistrates’ court of Victoria

Submission note: A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (law) to the La Trobe law School, the college of arts, social sciences and commerce, La Trobe University, Bundoora.

The criminal law has traditionally had difficulty in dealing with mentally ill offenders. This dissertation examines the ways in which the criminal justice system has evolved to accommodate mental illness. M’Naghten and traditional sentencing mechanisms deal with mental illness as mitigating factors. However, mental health courts go one step further, actively seeking rehabilitative and therapeutic outcomes for participants. Mental health court programs have been steadily increasing in number since the early 1990s. There is, however, little Australian research into the efficacy or otherwise of such programs; claims as to their effectiveness have largely been based on a handful of impressionistic studies. The aim of the current inquiry was to determine the degree to which participation in the Assessment and Referral Court (ARC) List in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria reduced re‐offending rates by providing a comparative analysis of pre, peri, and post program offending and the time taken to re‐offend. The results of a two‐year recidivism study suggest that successful completion of the ARC List reduces recidivism. Furthermore, ARC is also effective at reducing the severity of offending behaviour post program completion. Several factors that ought to inform the ongoing development of Mental Health Diversionary Courts in Australia are also examined.