Anglo-American Insanity Defence Reform

Anglo-American Insanity Defence Reform PDF Author: Faye Boland
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 042986342X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Get Book Here

Book Description
First published in 1999, The book examines the magnitude of the polemic surrounding each attempt to reformulate the insanity defence in the United States, England and Ireland. The book contains a critique of the McNaghten Rules, the defence of irresistible impulse, the product test of insanity, the justly responsible test, the American Law Institute’s test of insanity and the Butler Committee’s proposed revision. At the heart of the controversy surrounding each reformulation has been a medico-legal tension over the wording of the insanity defence and whether law or psychiatry’s view of insanity should prevail. The book looks at the success of the English diminished responsibility defence in abating the controversy. The result of introducing this defence has been the emergence of the legal and medical professions from a state of cold war to entente cordiale. The book explores the reasons for the diminished responsibility defence’s success in resolving the polemic over the insanity defence.

Anglo-American Insanity Defence Reform

Anglo-American Insanity Defence Reform PDF Author: Faye Boland
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 042986342X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Get Book Here

Book Description
First published in 1999, The book examines the magnitude of the polemic surrounding each attempt to reformulate the insanity defence in the United States, England and Ireland. The book contains a critique of the McNaghten Rules, the defence of irresistible impulse, the product test of insanity, the justly responsible test, the American Law Institute’s test of insanity and the Butler Committee’s proposed revision. At the heart of the controversy surrounding each reformulation has been a medico-legal tension over the wording of the insanity defence and whether law or psychiatry’s view of insanity should prevail. The book looks at the success of the English diminished responsibility defence in abating the controversy. The result of introducing this defence has been the emergence of the legal and medical professions from a state of cold war to entente cordiale. The book explores the reasons for the diminished responsibility defence’s success in resolving the polemic over the insanity defence.

Reform of the Federal Insanity Defense

Reform of the Federal Insanity Defense PDF Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Criminal Justice
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal liability
Languages : en
Pages : 746

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Legal Defence of Insanity in Anglo-American Criminal Law

The Legal Defence of Insanity in Anglo-American Criminal Law PDF Author: Archibald Nii Maatei Laud-Hammond
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Defense (Criminal procedure)
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Insanity Defense

The Insanity Defense PDF Author: Abraham S. Goldstein
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300000993
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
The insanity defense has become the most passionately debated issue in criminal law, a debate marked by slogans and stereotypes. Mr. Goldstein offers a reasoned study of that debate and the current rules behind the law, as well as a careful examination of what might be expected from any new rules now proposed.

The Insanity Defense and Its Alternatives

The Insanity Defense and Its Alternatives PDF Author: Ingo Keilitz
Publisher: Institute
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 104

Get Book Here

Book Description


Before and After Hinckley

Before and After Hinckley PDF Author: Henry J. Steadman
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 9780898622805
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Get Book Here

Book Description
The insanity acquittal of John Hinckley in June, 1982 for the attempted assassination of then President, Ronald Reagan, sparked a flurry of legislative rhetoric and public inquiry about how to stop such "abuses." State and federal legislators, buttressed by professional associations' resolutions for reform, responded with a wide array of proposals for statutory reform insanity defense. Based on six years of research--which constituted the largest study ever conducted of insanity defense pleas in the U.S.--this book describes the impact of the reforms instituted both before and after Hinckley's assassination attempt. In so doing, the volume offers the most authoritative, empirically sound answers to controversial questions about who uses the insanity defense, about its presumed abuses, and about what really happens when legislators respond to public pressure to tighten statutes.

The Insanity Defense

The Insanity Defense PDF Author: Grant H. Morris
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780669000542
Category : Aliénation mentale
Languages : en
Pages : 133

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Insanity Defense

The Insanity Defense PDF Author: Richard Moran
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal intent
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Get Book Here

Book Description


Psychiatric Aspects of Justification, Excuse and Mitigation in Anglo-American Criminal Law

Psychiatric Aspects of Justification, Excuse and Mitigation in Anglo-American Criminal Law PDF Author: Alec Buchanan
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 1846420059
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Get Book Here

Book Description
Violent crimes committed by the mentally disordered attract academic and public attention. They raise issues of moral responsibility and public protection. This study systematically analyses the principles underlying those legal and medical devices which enable the courts to make special arrangements for the mentally disordered. Buchanan examines three fundamental precepts in criminal law: justification, excuse and mitigation. A defendant who has been proved guilty can usually have his or her sentence reduced only where one of these three principles applies. The way that the courts interpret notions of responsibility and choice may influence the outcome considerably. For mentally disordered offenders, the matter becomes even more complicated - this is where the psychological and psychiatric aspects of justification, excuse and mitigation come into play. The author combines a jurisprudential analysis of the above with a discussion of current legal provision for mentally disordered offenders in England and America. This thought-provoking book will be of particular interest to a wide range of professionals in the forensic field, as well as to academics specialising in mental health law and the philosophy of psychiatry.

Disorder in the Court

Disorder in the Court PDF Author: Andrea L. Alden
Publisher: University Alabama Press
ISBN: 9780817360030
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first book-length rhetorical history and analysis of the insanity defense The insanity defense is considered one of the most controversial, most misunderstood, and least straightforward subjects in the American legal system. Disorder in the Court: Morality, Myth, and the Insanity Defense traces the US legal standards for the insanity defense as they have evolved from 1843, when they were first codified in England, to 1984, when the US government attempted to revise them through the Insanity Defense Reform Act. Throughout this period “insanity” existed primarily as a legal term rather than a medical one; yet the testimony of psychiatric experts is required in cases in which an insanity defense is raised. The adjudication of such cases by courtroom practice is caught between two different but overlapping discourses, the legal and the medical, both of which have historically sought to assert and maintain firm disciplinary boundaries. Both expert and lay audiences have struggled to understand and apply commonplace definitions of sanity, and the portrayal of the insanity defense in popular culture has only served to further frustrate such understandings. Andrea L. Alden argues that the problems with understanding the insanity defense are, at their foundation, rhetorical. The legal concept of what constitutes insanity and, therefore, an abdication of responsibility for one’s actions does not map neatly onto the mental health professions’ understandings of mental illness and how that affects an individual’s ability to understand or control his or her actions. Additionally, there are multiple layers of persuasion involved in any effort to convince a judge, jury—or a public, for that matter—that a defendant is or is not responsible for his or her actions at a particular moment in time. Alden examines landmark court cases such as the trial of Daniel McNaughtan, Durham v. United States, and the trial of John Hinckley Jr. that signal the major shifts in the legal definitions of the insanity defense. Combining archival, textual, and rhetorical analysis, Alden offers a close reading of texts including trial transcripts, appellate court opinions, and relevant medical literature from the time period. She contextualizes these analyses through popular texts—for example, newspaper articles and editorials—showing that while all societies have maintained some version of mental illness as a mitigating factor in their penal systems, the insanity defense has always been fraught with controversy.