The course particularly aims to explore the complex relationship between the law's responses to both institutional and individual forms of maltreatment. In addition, we examine how these abusive conditions contribute to problem behaviors, such as running away from home, prostitution, suicide, juvenile delinquency and adult domestic violence. These examinations are approached from a law and social science perspective in order to understand the nature of law's responses to child maltreatment, the difficulty of enacting appropriate reform efforts, and ways to implement innovative approaches to dealing with child maltreatment. Feminist legal scholars have opened an area of scholarship that has fundamentally changed the discourse in traditional legal circles. This course explores the state of the art treatments and interventions for juvenile and adult offenders.
Special emphasis is placed upon understanding and critiquing clinical practices and procedures.
Explores the etiology of youth violence from developmental and socio-cultural perspectives, the influence of societal factors such as media, guns, and gangs on violence among youth. This course considers how law and legal doctrines can affect mental health professionals and the delivery of their services. Empirical research is used to illuminate the relationship between civil and criminal law to public and private mental health services. Class discussion emphasizes the distinction between what is and what ought to be in the legal regulation of this domain. Theory, research and practice in the assessment and treatment of, and intervention with, persons involved with the legal process who have clinical problems.