What Motivates Public Support for Legally Mandated Mental Health Treatment?

Abstract

The use of legal coercion to compel individuals to participate in mental health treatment is expanding despite a lack of empirical support for many of its forms. Policies supporting mandated treatment are made by legislators and judges, often based on perceptions of public concern. Using data from the MacArthur Mental Health Module contained in the 1996 General Social Survey (N = 1,444), the authors examined the impact of political ideology, attributions about the cause of mental illness, and perceptions of dangerousness in determining public support for legally mandated mental health treatment. Perceived dangerousness and attributions about the cause of the mental disorder were significant predictors of support for legally mandated treatment. Conservative political ideology was related to attributing the vignette problem to bad character, indirectly affecting support for legal coercion.