Mental health codes and criminal justice systems are formalized conventions in this society, each providing a means for removing individuals from active participation in the social life of the community. Much has been made of apparent ethical and practical inconsistencies in the two conventions. The procedures prescribed in the two conventions differ in significant ways while the ends achieved in both are, in some ways, similar. It is unlikely that two such well-established conventions with functional similarities do not have a functional relationship in the social structure of which they are parts. If such a relationship exists, then attempts at reform in either convention may have unforseen implications in the functioning of the other convention. It seems probable that an understanding of an existing relationship between mental health codes and the criminal justice system is best approached through a comparison of similarities and differences in relation to social-cultural values that provide the fundamental assumptions on which the social structure is based. The apparent redundancy in the two conventions for extruding deviant individuals from active participation in the social interactions of the community can be explained as necessary, if egalitarian values are to be maintained as key social assumptions. To explore such a conclusion it is important first to compare the differences and similarities in the two conventions.
Code Name: Justice download
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