The script perspective applied to police interventions on people with mental illness

• In Event: Police Responses to the Mentally Ill and Other Special Populations

Abstract

The crime script perspective was developed to capture the step-by-step accounts of the crime-commission process of specific crimes in order to offer a greater range of intervention-points for situational prevention purposes. The main objective of this project is to adopt this innovative approach to provide a detailed description of the step-by-step process of police interventions on people with mental illness, from the moment where police officers progress to the scene up to the final outcome where the person is taken in charge (either in custody or to the hospital). Using the script perspective is also crucial to understand the use of force when police officers intervene on such at-risk individuals. After having identified the scripts, recommendations will be suggested to prevent excessive use of force by police officers.

Authors

• Étienne Blais, Université de Montréal

• Léaw Roy, Université de Montréal