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Anti Insanity Defense Essay Research Paper Attacks — страница 5 | Referat.ru

Anti Insanity Defense Essay Research Paper Attacks — страница 5

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questio rising from some court decisions. A 1971 decision forced to reassessment of 586 inmates of Pennsylvania’s Fairview State Hospital for the Criminaly Insane who were placed there under the GMI verdict. Over two-thirds were eventually released. Over the next four years, 27 percent were rearrested. Eleven percent were rearrested for violent crime. Including some others who were rehospitalized for a violent act, a total of 14.5 percent of those released proved to be dangerous. ABOLISH THE INSANITY DEFENSE Abolishing the insanity defense is easier said than done for the simple reason that the mens rea requirement remains a fundamental legal principle. The proposal that “mental condition shall not be a defense to any charge of criminal conduct” could be interpreted in one

of two ways. The broader interpretation would mean that absolutly no aspect of mental condition could be taken into account. In effect, this interpretation would abolish the mens rea requirement altogether. The prosecution would not have to prove anything about the accused’s mental state. This is unneccessarry. For one thing, it would wipe out the distintions that separarte first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter. It is doubtful that anyone againt the insanity defense would choose to take this approach. So sweeping, in fact, would be it’s effect, that it would probably be declared unconstitutuional. A more limited reading of the wording “mental condition shall not be a defense to any charge of criminal conduct” would mean that an affermative plea of

“not guilty by reason of insanity” could not be raised. The crucial distinction here is drawn between affermative and ordinary defenses. An ordinary defense is simply an attempt to shown that the prosecution has failed to connect the accused with the crime, a defense used in everyday law. An affermative defense is raised when the prosecution has connected the accused with the crime, as in an example of self-defense. The defense argues that, yes, the accused did shoot and kill the person and did so intentionally, but because the act was commited in self-defense the accused does not bear criminal responsibilty for it. The same is true in the case of a criminal act commited under duress. The insanity defense, in this respect, is an affermative defense. It is this usage that

needs to be abolished. In cases such as self defense it may be an adequate and totally acceptable defense, for in how many cases do you hear of a man being aquitted due to a self-defense plea returning to the streets in order to kill again? To draw a comparison between the two and argue that both defenses are neccessarry to the total order is naive and unfounded. CONCLUSION The law of insanity involves the conceptes of mens rea and punishments, as does the criminal law in general. Insanity is a legal concept, not a medical concept, and insanity is defined within the context of an adversary system wherin psychiatrists and lawyers battle one another over the meaning of terms such as “right and wrong” and “ability to control one’s behavior.” Mental illness and mental

disease are psychoanalytic concepts, not scientific concepts. Mental illness is defined by talking to people or by giving them written tests, and there is no agreement among psychiatrists as to the meaning of this illness or whether or not it really exists. Some psychiatrists call mental illness a myth. The psychoanalyst has not been successful in treating or predicting mental illness. The psychoanalyst has never established a casual relationship between mental illness and criminal behavior. The insanity defense would require both a mental illness and a relationship between the illness and the criminal behavior, neither of which could be scientificly established. Of the criminals both aquited and convicted using the insanity defense, a good number have shown conclusive evidence

of recidivism. Many dangerous persons are allowed to return to the streets and many non-dangerous persons are forced into facilities due to an insanity plea adding further confusion and injustice