What Is Criminal Insanity? (From Ethics, Public Policy, and Criminal Justice, P 228-244, 1982, Frederick Elliston and Norman Bowie, eds. See NCJ-86248)

• NCJ Number: 86261
• Author(s): H Fingarette
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 17 pages
• Sale Source: Oelgeschlager, Gunn and Hain Publishers, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The insanity defense should be maintained as an aspect of assessing the culpability of a suspect in the commission of a crime, but the defense should not be framed in the concepts of medical science but rather within the concepts of the legal norm of culpability.

Abstract

The parameters for an insanity defense are essentially based in the McNaghten test, which holds that legal insanity is a defect of reason caused by a disease of the mind that causes the defendant to suffer a defect of knowledge or to have no knowledge that what he/she was doing was wrong. Although the American Law Institute has rephrased the McNaghten rule, the rephrased version contains the same principles. The primary difficulty in the insanity defense is contained in the concept of 'disease of the mind.' There is no adequate definition of mental disease, and it is not helpful to substitute the list of specific mental disorders found in the Diagnostic Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. In many cases, having one of the listed disorders would not excuse the defendant from criminal liability. The insanity defense should focus on the defendant's mental capacity to understand what it is that makes an act criminal or not criminal. Both the insanity and the diminished capacity defenses must determine whether the defendant was lacking in mental capacity to act rationally in regard to the criminality of the act, and if the defendant was lacking in such rational capacity, whether the condition was culpably brought about by the defendant. These determinations are usually the responsibility of a jury. Twenty-seven notes are listed.