Juvenile Psychiatry and the Law

433 Pages·1989·6.9 MB·English

by  Jacques M. Quen (auth.)

JUVENILE
PSYCHIATRY
AND THE LAW
CRITICAL ISSUES IN
AMERICAN PSYCHIATRY AND THE LAW
was edited for
THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PSYCHIATRY AND THE LAW
(TRI-STATE CHAPTER)
Officers
Stephen Rachlin, M.D. President Michael H. Bell, M.D. Councillor
Henry C. Weinstein, M.D. Past President Stephen B. Billick, M.D. Councillor
Stanley Kern, M.D. Vice-President Ezra Griffith, M.D. Councillor
Harold I. Schwartz, M.D. Secretary Howard Owens, M.D. Councillor
Robert L. Goldstein, M.D. Treasurer Sheldon Travin, M.D. Councillor
Richard Rosner, M.D. Founding President Howard V. Zonana, M.D. Councillor
Volume 1 Edited by Richard Rosner, M.D.
Volume 2 Edited by Richard Rosner, M.D.
Volume 3 GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY AND THE LAW
Edited by Richard Rosner, M.D., and Harold I. Schwartz, M.D.
Volume 4 JUVENILE PSYCHIATRY AND THE LAW
Edited by Richard Rosner, M.D., and Harold I. Schwartz, M.D.
Volume 5 CRIMINAL COURT CONSULTATION
Edited by Richard Rosner, M.D., and Ronnie B. Harmon, M.A.
Volume 6 CORRECTIONAL PSYCHIATRY
Edited by Richard Rosner, M.D., and Ronnie B. Harmon, M.A.
A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of
each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment.
For further information please contact the publisher.
JUVENILE
PSYCHIATRY
AND THE LAW
Edited by
RICHARD ROSNER, M.D.
Clinical Associate Professor, Division 'Ii Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Department 'Ii Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine
Fellow, Amen"can Society for Adolescent Psychiatry
Diplomate, American Board 'Ii Forensic Psychiatry
and Medical Director, Forensic Psychiatry Clinic for the New York Criminal
and Supreme Courts (First Judicial Department), New York, New York
and
HAROLD I. SCHWARTZ, M.D.
Associate Professor 'Ii Clinical Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry,
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Chiif, Psychiatric Outpatient Services,
and Chiif, Program in Psychiatry and Law, Department of Psychiatry,
Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, New York
PLENUM PRESS. NEW YORK AND LONDON
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 88-657025
ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-5528-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-5526-7
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4684-5526-7
© 1989 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
To our parents
Contributors
Promise Ahlstrom • Division of Adolescent Medicine, Montefiore Medical
Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
Judith V. Becker • New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of
Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New
York, New York
Fred S. Berlin • Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School
of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Eileen Bloomingdale • New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York
Lewis Bloomingdale • New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York
Judianne Densen-Gerber • Odyssey Institute Corporation of Connecticut,
Bridgeport, Connecticut
John R. Dugan, Jr. • Research Foundation of the City University of New
York, New York, New York
Everett Dulit • Department of Psychiatry, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx,
New York; Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein School of Medicine,
Bronx, New York
Richard A. Ellison • William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute, Columbia, South
Carolina
Gloria Faretra • Queens Children's Psychiatric Center, Bellerose, New York
Donald S. Gair • Gaebler Children's Center, Massachusetts Department of
Mental Health, Waltham, Massachusetts; Department of Child Psychiatry
vii
viii CONTRIBUTORS
and Child Development, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston,
Massachusetts
Gary J. Grad • Queens Children's Psychiatric Center, Bellerose, New York
Richard J. Herrnstein • Department of Psychology, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Sarla Inamdar • Department of Pediatrics, New York Medical College, Val
halla, New York
Subhash C. Inamdar • Department of Psychiatry, New York University School
of Medicine, New York, New York
RichardJ. Kavoussi • Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York
Avron M. Kriechman • Division of Child Psychiatry, Schneider Children's
Hospital, Long Island Jewish Hillside Medical Center, New Hyde Park,
New York; Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York at
Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York
Richard C. Marohn • Department of Clinical Psychiatry, Northwestern Uni
versity Medical School, Chicago, Illinois
Robert B. Millman • Departments of Psychiatry and Public Health, New York
Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, New York, New York
Hart de Coudres Peterson • Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, New
York Hospital, New York, New York; Departments of Pediatrics and Neu
rology, Cornell University Medical College, New York, New York
Heidi M. Petersen • New York Academy of Medicine, New York, New York
Jacques M. Quen • Department of Psychiatry, New York Hospital-Cornell
Medical Center, New York, New York
Richard A. Ratner • Department of Psychiatry, George Washington School of
Medicine, Washington, DC; Department of Psychiatry, Saint Elizabeth's
Hospital, Washington, DC
Richard Rosner • Forensic Psychiatry Clinic of the New York Criminal and
Supreme Courts, New York, New York; Department of Psychiatry, New
York University School of Medicine, New York, New York
CONTRIBUTORS ix
S. Kenneth Schonberg • Division of Adolescent Medicine, Montefiore Medi
cal Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
Larry H. Strasburger • McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts; Depart
ment of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
Sheldon Travin • Department of Psychiatry, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Cen
ter, Bronx, New York; Department of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, Bronx, New York
Alan J. Tuckman • Forensic Psychiatry Clinic, Rockland County, New York;
Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New
York, New York
Robert Weinstock • Department of Psychiatry, University of California-Los
Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Department of Medicine, University of
California-Irvine, Irvine, California
Foreword
I am not sure when a series of volumes becomes an "institution"; this is the
fourth annual volume of Critical Issues in American Psychiatry and the Law, and
each has been an extraordinary summary of important forensic topics. This
book makes the point that the interface of psychiatry and law is not merely a
legal one, but has a great deal to do with clinical issues such as diagnosis and
treatment.
Children and adolescents are not adults. This may come as something of a
shock to those who proselytize for equal rights for children, and to those adults
(including some psychiatrists, attorneys, and judges) who advocate giving the
child adult choices and/or responsibilities.
Children differ from adults in many ways. The specialist in child or adoles
cent psychiatry knows not only that one must attend to special social and family
issues for juveniles, but that juveniles are more complex internally as well.
They attempt to survive in the world while rapidly growing and learning,
usually with physically and emotionally immature resources. They have had
few years in which to develop experience, and do not have the psyche with
which to integrate that experience in ways one would expect of a mature adult.
Sometimes this frightens the patient, as in the case of a physically large teen
ager whose impulse control is impaired. Sometimes it is frustrating, as in the
case of a healthy child unable to escape from a dysfunctioning family. It is
always confusing, and usually uncomfortable.
The rights of the juvenile cannot be equal to those of the adult. Some
reasons for this are outlined in this book. Whether or not this is fair is immaterial.
It is simply foolhardy, and sometimes cruel, to award all the rights of adult
hood-with their attendant burdens and responsibilities-to children.
The extent to which we give the child responsibility is traditionally gradu
ated by families or courts in such a way as to balance, as nearly as possible, the
individual's ability to assume personal and social autonomy with the need for
protection and supervision. Some would have us protect the child more than
others, for example by not allowing lengthy prison sentences for even the most
heinous of juvenile crimes. It is interesting that many of these advocates state
their positions in the name of individual rights.
xi
xii FOREWORD
Read on, then, as Volume 4, juvenile Psychiatry and the Law provides fascinat
ing insights into some of the most important clinical, legal, and social issues of
our professions.
WILLIAM H. REID, M.D., M.P.H.
President-Elect
American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
San Antonio, Texas