The psychiatric and criminal careers of mentally disordered offenders referred to a custody diversion team in the United Kingdom

Custody diversion teams were introduced in England in order to divert mentally disordered offenders away from the criminal justice system and custody because of concerns about the growing prevalence of psychiatric disorder in prison populations. This research explored the impact of one such team on the psychiatric and criminal careers of people referred to it. Time ordered cluster analysis was used to identify and map the different institutional careers experienced by people referred to the team and the different paths their careers took as a consequence of the team’s actions. Five different types of career were identified. Careers One and Two describe experiences of offenders – violent offenders with no psychiatric history who were referred, assessed and diagnosed but had no health or social care needs identified and were not referred again. Careers Three and Four describe experiences of mentally disordered offenders – violent offenders with a psychiatric history half of whom (Career Three) were referred, assessed and diagnosed, had health or social care needs identified and were not referred again; the remainder (Career Four) were not assessed or diagnosed, nor did they have needs identified and consequently all were re-referred repeatedly. Career Five represents neither – individuals referred for information and for whom little else is known.