On Saturday, March 8 3:30-4:30 p.m Professor Winick will chair a panel discussion ant the AP-LS Annual Conference in Jacksonville, FL. The title of his session is called “Dealing with Mentally Ill Domestic Violence Perpetrators: A New Judicial Model”
Abstract:
People suffering from mental illness are increasingly referred to the domestic violence court. Yet the typical diversion programs available, including batterer’s interventions programs, are inappropriate for those with serious mental illness. As a result, the Miami-Dade Domestic Violence Court has developed a new approach for dealing with this population that applies mental health court techniques in domestic violence court. This session will described and evaluate this pioneering model. A Miami-Dade County Domestic Violence Court Judge will describe the new therapeutic model that she pioneered. A Professor of Law and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, an expert on therapeutic jurisprudence, will situate this model within the context of other problem-solving courts and discuss how the court uses principles and approaches of therapeutic jurisprudence. Next, a recent graduate of the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship Program at the University of Miami, will report the results of a retrospective and longitudinal study of 20 cases in the Domestic Violence Mental Health Court followed over a two year period, comparing them to a sample of non-mentally ill perpetrators processed by the court in the same period.
Chair:
Bruce Winick
Discussants:
Debra White-Labora, State of Florida 11th Judicial Circuit the Miami-Dade County Court
Yanira M Olaya, University of Miami
