Insanity Defense Essay Research Paper When someone

Insanity Defense Essay, Research Paper

When someone commits a crime, he or she may use mental illness as a defense. This is

called an insanity plea or insanity defense. What the insanity defense does is try to give

the alleged perpetrator a fair trial. At least in extreme cases, society agrees with this

principle. The problem is where do we draw the line. Under what circumstances is a

person considered insane, and when are they not. The trouble with the insanity defense in

recent years is the assumption that virtually all criminals have some sort of mental

problem. One important point is that the crime itself, no matter how appalling, does not

demonstrate insanity. Today, the insanity defense has become a major issue within the

legal system. If the defendant is clearly out of touch with reality, the police and district

attorney ordinarily agree to bypass the trial and let the defendant enter a mental hospital.

On the other hand, if the defendant has no serious signs of mental illness, the defense

attorneys will not attempt an insanity defense. This is because they know that juries are

reluctant to accept it. Basically, the only way for a lawyer to prove his client.s insanity is

to try to project what his client was thinking (or not thinking) at the time that the crime

was committed. This is usually done by enlisting the testimonies of a psychologists or

psychiatrists, who are known as .expert witnesses..

Both legal and mental health professionals have long struggled to establish a clear and

acceptable definition of insanity. Insanity is a legal term, not a psychological or medical

one. The Sarasons prefer to use the term .maladaptive behavior. instead of insane or

insanity. Maladaptive behavior is, .behavior that deals inadequately with a situation,

especially one that is stressful. (5). Adaptation is the way people balance what they do

and want to do, and what the environment/community requires of them. Successful

adaptation depends on a person.s stress (situations that impose demands on him or her),

vulnerability (likelihood of a maladaptive response), and coping skills (techniques that help

him or her deal with difficulties/stress) (5). Consider the recent school shootings as an

example. Students who are teased and bullied are experiencing stress. Some students

have low vulnerability and choose to talk about the situation with a parent or teacher,

which is a good coping strategy. Other students may have high vulnerability and poor

coping skills. These students are more likely to respond maladaptively by taking a gun to

school and shooting the classmates who bullied them.

Maladaptive behavior that leads to criminal conduct has been around since the

beginning of time. The Greeks assigned a guardian to each mentally ill person for life.

The guardian was held responsible for the actions of that person. If a mentally ill person

committed a crime, his or her guardian was punished. In medieval times, people

considered insanity to be a severe punishment from God. An insane person was thought

to be separate from God and without any will or reason, so he or she could not be

punished for committing a crime. The idea of using an .expert witness. to verify the

mental status of an alleged criminal began during the witchcraft trials, between 1400 and

1700. Europe has never held the mentally ill responsible for their crimes. English law,

however, has always held the mentally ill responsible for their crimes. To the English,

intent and motive were not the issues. The M.Naghten case changed the way the English

viewed legal insanity (4).

One of the oldest, and perhaps most famous, definitions of legal insanity is the

M.Naghten rule, written in Britain in 1843. Daniel M.Naghten murdered Prime Minister

Sir Robert Peel’s secretary in England in 1843. M.Naghten claimed that during the

murder, he believed it was Sir Robert Peel he was killing. At the trial, M.Naghten’s

lawyer convinced the judge that M.Naghten suffered from a mental disorder that

prevented him from knowing his actions were wrong. The lawyer used testimony given by

a psychiatrist and excerpts from a book called “A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of

Insanity,. written by an American doctor named Isaac Ray. This was the first insanity

defense case in which an acquittal was granted based on the use of .expert. testimony, not

an eyewitness account. This case also provided England.s legal system with a method to

test alleged criminals for legal insanity. To be regarded as legally insane under the

M.Naghten rule, alleged criminals must be so disordered that they do not realize they are

committing a criminal act. A psychiatrist (or .expert witness.) talks with the alleged

criminal to see if he or she understands the difference between right and wrong. Then the

psychiatrist forms an opinion about whether or not the person knew it was wrong to

commit the crime. The possibility of unc

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