NCJ Number
176855
Date Published
Unknown
Length
62 pages
Annotation
This analysis of legal and medical issues related to persons in Australia with mental disorders traces the efforts of the Victoria Law Reform Commission related to these issues, judicial decisions related to the insanity defense and mentally ill offenders, civil commitment, and the concept of civil liberty.
Abstract
The Commission's 1988 discussion paper titled "Mental Malfunction and Criminal Responsibility" covered the issue of what to count as insanity for purposes of the insanity defense. It quoted the M'Naghten rules' term "disease of the mind" and emphasized that the condition might be temporary or longstanding. However, courts considering the insanity defense have not given clear guidance about what constitutes disease of the mind. The Victoria Law Reform Commission concluded that antisocial personality disorder should be regarded as a disease of the mind. Questions about civil liberty and criminal responsibility are ultimately moral and political rather than psychiatric. Issues related to civil liberty should use Mill's guiding principle on when restricting liberty is appropriate. Civil commitment is justified for a person with a personality disorder so severe as to render him or her functionally equivalent to a mentally ill person and also dangerous to others. Victoria's Community Protection Act provides a mechanism for civil commitment in such cases, goes further than Mill did by requiring two criteria rather than one, and is consistent with the criteria of the Mental Health Act.