Charles C. Dike

Cultural competence in correctional mental health.

Cultural competence is an essential aspect of competence as a mental health professional. In this article, the framework of cultural competence developed in general psychiatry-acquiring knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand the interaction between culture and the individual-is applied to the prison setting. Race and ethnicity, extremes of age, gender, and religion are highlighted and examined as elements of the overall culture of prisons. The model of the cultural formulation from the DSM-IV is then adapted for use by clinicians in the correctional setting, with particular emphasis on the interaction between the inmates culture of origin and the unique culture of the prison environment.

Violence, justice, and health: implications for a multisectoral collaboration

Until recently, criminal justice has been the predominant way by which society has intervened in problematic human violence. Then, there has been the rise of a public health approach, which views human violence as an issue one can research, understand, and prevent. Mental health and the social sciences shed light on how psychological and social dimensions shape human violence. Laws, in turn, protect civil and human rights and set standards for governance. All these different domains have much to gain from collaborating with one another, but there has been insufficient exchange between them. With the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN 2015) and its wide-ranging, cooperative goals for sustained security and peace, it is a propitious time to consider how criminal justice and public health, as well as their allied fields, can join forces. Violence is a complex, human construct that cannot be understood outside of social, cultural, political, religious, and structural contexts. Therefore, any endeavor to prevent violence and promote peace requires broad collaboration and sustained commitment to these goals. The World Health Organization (WHO) Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA) continues in its diverse work to build bridges. At first sight, the emphasis on healing in public health and punishment in criminal justice makes such a dialogue seem difficult. However, there are more commonalities than we often recognize. Increasingly, it is understood that the core mission of the police in democratic societies is to reduce crime and violence by using the best evidence on how to achieve these goals. Public health methodologies provide the detailed epidemiological data and experiments to advise criminal justice policy. Often, close cooperation between criminal justice and public health agencies is essential to achieve violence reduction goals. On the other hand, public health approaches to violence prevention require a functioning law enforcement system, thoughtful implementation of laws, and robust mental health services for victims and potential perpetrators. High-quality interdisciplinary research can help to strengthen effective collaboration between the public health and criminal justice systems. For example, research on the mental health interventions that can prevent future perpetration of violence can help to reduce costly imprisonment as well as societal harm (Gilligan and Lee 2004). Similarly, evaluation research on the effectiveness of collaborative service delivery between police, social welfare, mental health, and public health actors in cases of child maltreatment or victims of intimate partner violence can show how different sectors can work together more effectively. Contributions to this issue make important steps toward such an integrated view, incorporating studies from a range of geographic regions and income levels, as in past issues (Lee et al. 2014). First, we offer an example of an innovative, integrative approach to criminal justice, mental health, and family support in Connecticut, USA, by Lee and colleagues. Then, we present a study spanning 28 European countries, in which Sanz-Barbero and colleagues show empirical evidence on how macrosocial policies related to gender equality may help to reduce intimate partner violence. Continuing with the theme of gender violence, De and Murshid highlight how cultural beliefs that justify intimate partner violence affect the extent to which victimization experiences are associated with a higher likelihood screen for depression in Bangladesh. Djikanovic and colleagues reveal that promoting gender equality is important to address beliefs related to wife beating in a young minority This editorial is part of the special issue ‘‘Violence, Justice, and Health: Implications for a Multisectoral Collaboration’’.