NCJ Number
104739
Date Published
1986
Length
112 pages
Annotation
Presentations at the seventh Criminological Colloquium (1985) of the Council of Europe focus on definitions of criminal responsibility, psychological factors which may mitigate or exclude such responsibility, problems in the use of< psychiatric expertise to assess criminal responsibility, and the impact of such assessments on case decisionmaking and treatment for mentally ill offenders.
Abstract
The colloquium concluded that legislation in Council of Europe members countries has a wide variety of terminology and concepts relating to criminal responsibility and the factors which may mitigate or exclude it. The prevailing tendency among these countries is to pose the psychological expert questions pertaining to the accused's mental state and its relationship to the legal concept of criminal responsibility. The experts at the colloquium agreed that the assessment of criminal responsibility is not within their competence and that psychiatric pronouncements on an accused's or offender's mental condition should be confined to the reference framework of the psychiatric profession. Colloquium participants further reasoned that a psychological evaluation pertaining to criminal responsibility should be confined to a psychiatric diagnosis and its effects on the person's contact with reality. Participants concluded that the clinical prediction of dangerousness is based on slender scientific evidence. Among other recommendations, the colloquium calls on the Council of Europe to promote interdisciplinary research on the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis and recidivism predictions along with possible connections between mental disorders and criminality. Appended bibliographies for each report and list of participants.