Crisis Intervention Training and Implicit Stigma Toward Mental Illness: Reducing Bias Among Criminal Justice Personnel

Approximately seven percent of all police calls involve persons with mental illness (Deane, Steadman, Borum, Veysey, & Morrissey, 1999). Subsequently, police departments around the world are adopting crisis intervention training (CIT) programs to improve encounters between persons with mental illness and criminal justice personnel. These programs are aimed at improving the recognition of mental illness symptomology, increasing awareness of pharmacological interventions, improving crisis intervention and de-escalation skills, and increasing knowledge of referral services (Browning, Van Hasselt, Tucker, & Vecchi, 2011). Although there is considerable evidence to suggest that these programs significantly reduce explicit stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness among police officers, little is known about the impact of police officers' implicit stigmatizing attitudes toward persons with mental illness. We first provide an overview of mental health stigma at the explicit and implicit levels. We then discuss the impact of stigma on persons with mental illness and its relevance to the criminal justice system. In addition, we review the recent research that supports the success of CIT programs. Finally, we propose a way in which to reduce the impact of negative bias toward persons with mental illness within the criminal justice context and discuss future directions for research.