title: The psychiatrist as court consultant: A challenge to community psychiatry.
abstract: As judicial regulatory activity increasingly concerns itself with social reorganization and human relationships, psychiatrists need to consider the most appropriate and effective utilization of their skills, knowledge, and experience within the setting of family and criminal courts. Psychiatric consultation should constitute a significant coordinate in the structure of court services to help promote the fulfillment of the courts' social responsibilities. The issue of disposition, which is the exclusive responsibility of the judiciary in our system of justice, emerges as the crucial social decision-making operation for psychiatric consideration. Psychiatrists should consider the contributions they might make to the problems of law as an instrument of social control and reorganization.
authors.affiliation: The Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 630 W. 168th St., 10032, N.Y.C..
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Goldin