NCJ Number
147549
Date Published
1993
Length
701 pages
Annotation
The criminally insane and the criminal courts are discussed.
Abstract
The author of this work conducted a study of statutory enactments and conducted numerous interviews to determine the legal treatment of the criminally insane. Once establishing the then-existing conditions and the needs they suggested, he considered possible reforms to problems presented by those conditions. The procedural machinery existing in the different States for coping with mental disorder of a defendant at time of trial is discussed. After this discussion, mental unsoundness as constituting irresponsibility, i.e., as a defense to a criminal charge, is explored, including the ethical and psychological foundations of the criminal law, and the historical development of the tests of the criminal irresponsibility of the mentally diseased offender. With this data as background, the author discusses the tests of irresponsibility, the concept of mental disease generally and the psychology of mental unsoundness and the data of psychopathology with the view of arriving at some estimate of the reliability and inclusiveness of these criteria of legal guilt, the procedural problems arising upon the acquittal of defendants because of irresponsibility, their incarceration, and final discharge. In the last chapter, the various discussions are woven together, conclusions are summarized, and recommendations are made. An appendix of State legislation governing insanity and criminal irresponsibility, with some interpretative decisions, a bibliography, tables of cases ands statutes, and an index are included.