Anti Insanity Defense Essay Research Paper Attacks — страница 3

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case being that the use of a neutral expert is impossible to implement. In the end the determination of insanity is a layman’s decision since it is the jury which ultimately decides whether the defendant is sane or insane. This of course is ludicrous since professional scientists cannot agree on the meaning of mental illness. How can a layman make such a decision especially after listening to contradictory testimony which is manipulated by opposing lawyers. I believe that the major problem that we can point out here is in the futility of asking psychiatrists to testify in terms of legal concepts of insanity. The psychiatrist finds himself in a double bind: he has no medical definition of mental illness and he must answer questions from lawyers concerning legal insanity, right

and wrong, and irresistible impulses. As stated by Packer: “The insanity defense cannot tolerate psychiatric testimony since the ethical foundations of the criminal law are rooted in beliefs about human rationality, deterribility, and free will. These are articles of moral faith rather than scientific fact.” MENTAL ILLNESS AND CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR In the insanity defense we have no variable independent of the criminal behavior we are studying. Insanity refers to a class of behaviors known by observing the behavior of the patient, and criminality is a class of behavior likewise known by observing the behavior of the defendant. We are involved in classification and labels. Where we have one class of behaviors labeled as schizophrenia, and the other class labeled as crimes, what we

have are two co-existing classes of behavior in the same individual, and not a cause or effect relationship (Simon, 1988;47). A person can be Catholic and commit a robbery without a casual relationship existing; likewise, a person can be schizophrenic and a robber without a casual relationship existing between the two classes of behavior. Coexistence does not show a casual relationship. Behavior cannot cause behavior. What we must do, in order to prove a relationship between mental illness and criminal behavior is produce some independent link between the two classes of behavior on a biochemical level. We must have a definition of mental illness independent of the behavioral symptoms in order to establish a casual relationship between crime and mental illness. There is such a

view and it is termed the Biological Psychiatric view. The view basically states that there is some defect or malfunction in the actual make-up of the brain of an individual which causes schizophrenia. This same defect then causes the criminal behavior such as robbery or murder. The problem here is that we have no actual way of mapping the brain and conclusively determining exactly what portion thereof is responsible for either type of behavior much less that one area is responsible for both. In essence even if true this theory is unprovable. There is also a statistical relationship between crime and mental illness. Guttmacker and Weihofen found 1.5 percent of the criminal population psychotic, 2.4 percent mentally defective, 6.9 percent neurotic, and 11.2 percent psychopathic

(Jeffery, 1985:66). These figures are very unconvincing. Additionally they are based on old diagnostic categories and procedures which are most unreliable. Also, the meaning of neurotic or psychotic or psychopathic is uncertain within the context of these studies and they do not refer to modern biological categories of brain disease. Terms such as insanity, mental illness, and mens rea have no scientific meaning, therefore we must leave as unspecified and uncertain the relationships between insanity, mental illness and criminal law. We certainly cannot conclude that mental illness bears any relationship to diseases of the brain, nor can we conclude that mental illness or insanity causes criminal behavior. THE MYTH OF MENTAL ILLNESS Not only is there no agreement as to the meaning

of insanity and mental illness, but to add further confusion, there is a school of thought that states that mental illness is a myth and does not exist. This approach is found in the works of such persons as Thomas Szasz (1961;1963) who argues that mental illness is a myth and label applied to behavior by psychiatrists who are making political and ethical decisions, and Laing (1969;1971) who claims that labels are being used by society to impose violence and control on people. View such as these and others deny the physical and biological basis of behavioral disorders. They separate completely biology and behavior, brain and behavior, and mental and physical. The fact that we refer to “mental” disease has been cited as evidence that we do not regard it as disease but as