Incapacitation and the Scope of the Criminal Law (From Ethics, Public Policy, and Criminal Justice, P 289-304, 1982, Frederick Elliston and Norman Bowie, eds. - See NCJ-86248)

• NCJ Number: 86264
• Author(s): R Tong
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain Publishers, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The criminal justice system should process and secure ultimate control only over persons who are criminally responsible for an offense, while all other nonliable dangerous persons should be entrusted to civil authorities.

Abstract

Helen Silving proposes that the criminal law sanction with nonpunitive measures of security and care not only the insanity acquittee but the automaton, the inadvertently negligent person, the intoxicated or otherwise addicted person, the psychopath, etc. Under such a system, it can be expected that the criminal justice system would extend itself into all areas where any person is perceived as being possibly dangerous to society in the future. There is no reason that the criminal justice system should concern itself with the control or care of any person who has not been convicted of criminal responsibility in a law violation. This means that nonliable persons who cannot restrain their dangerous behavior because of biological or psychological infirmities and who are thus not criminally culpable should be completely under the care and control of civil authorities equipped both to protect society from the dangerous behavior of such a person while providing needed care. All decisions regarding the care and release of such a person would be entrusted to the civil authorities. Thirty-nine notes are listed.