Date: TBD

Time: TBD

THEMATIC

CFP 19 - Thematic: Beyond Therapeutic Regimes: Critiquing Traditional Medical and Criminal Legal Responses
Room: TBD

Sponsors: Crime and Justice
Disability, Mental Wellness, and Social Justice
Law and Society

Organizers: Peper E. Rivers, Indiana University
Stephani Williams, Northern Arizona University
Melinda Leigh Maconi, Moffitt Cancer Center

Presider: Peper E. Rivers, Indiana University

Description: 

Medical and legal systems have long relied on one another to manage populations deemed mentally ill, yet this interdependence produces outcomes far more complex than a simple medicalization-versus-criminalization binary. This session examines how therapeutic and punitive logics intertwine in practice, revealing institutional structures that perpetuate or obscure the challenges facing people with mental illness, substance use disorders, and criminal legal system involvement.

The session also explores new directions in the study of drug use. Papers examine implementation strategies for community-based interventions and present collaborative research models that center the expertise of people who use drugs. Collectively, these contributions challenge us to move beyond false binaries, recognize carcerality wherever it operates, and imagine alternatives grounded in autonomy and meaningful community participation.

Papers:

“Beyond Criminalization versus Medicalization: Reconceptualizing the Criminalization of Mental Illness,” Mariya A. Khan, University of Illinois Chicago

“‘Artificial Motivation’: Civil Commitment, Rehabilitation, and the Cultural Production of Addiction as Legal Pathology (1961–1971),” Peper E. Rivers, Indiana University

“Identifying Implementation Strategies to Support Programming That Addresses Criminal Risk Factors for People with Serious Mental Illness within Community Behavioral Health Service Settings,” Natalie Bonfine, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Amy Blank Wilson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Faith Scanlon, Massachusetts General Hospital - Harvard Medical School, Anna Parisi, George Mason University, Jonathan Phillips, University of Minnesota, Robert D. Morgan, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Jamie Swaine and Caroline Ginley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Socioecological Correlates of Prison-Based MOUD Initiation among Persons with Opioid Use Disorder,” Carrie B. Oser, Marisa Booty and Maria Rockett, University of Kentucky

“Pursuing Legitimacy through Criminalization: A General Systems Theory Analysis of Behavioral Health System Response to Familiar Faces,” Leslie L. Wood, York Technical College, Stacey L. Barrenger and Shiah Kleinman, Northeast Ohio Medical University

“Doing Community-Based Research for Real,” Hiawatha Collins, Terrell Jones, Tom Blazsek and William Almodovar, Peer Network of New York, David Frank, Alex S. Bennett and Holly Hagan, New York University

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