Mental Illness Mens Rea Essay - 1,644 words

The insanity defense is a defense that is used in the courts to say the defendant was not aware of what they were doing at the time of the crime. The terms of such a defense are to be found in the instructions presented by the trial judge to the jury at the close of a case. These instructions can be drawn from any of several rules used in the determination of mental illness. The final determination of mental illness rests solely on the jury who uses information drawn from the testimony of "expert" witnesses, usually professionals in the field of psychology. The net result of such a determination places an individual accordingly, be it placement in a mental facility, incarceration, or outright release. Because of these factors, there are several problems raised by the existence of the insanity defense.


Problems such as the actual possibility of determining mental illness, justifiable placement of judged "mentally ill" offenders, and the overall usefulness of such a defense. In all, I believe that these problems, as well as others which will be mentioned later, lead us to the conclusion that the insanity defense is useless and should be abolished entirely. We have seen some cases in the past, such as Lorena Bobbett pleading insanity. Insanity is a legal, not a medical definition. Therefore, mental illness and insanity are not synonymous: only some mental illness constitutes insanity. Insanity, however, includes not only mental illness but also mental deficiencies.


Due to this, there are problems in exactly how to apply a medical theory to a legal matter (Gerber 8). The legal concepts of mental illness and insanity raise questions in a conflict between what are termed legalistic criminology and scientific criminology: mens rea, punishment v. treatment, responsibility, and prisons v. hospitals. This debate seesaws to and from amidst a gray area between law and science. The one problem with the theory of mental illness is that is all it is a theory.


Scientists live by theories but legal authorities do not trust them. By applying a loose theory such as mental illness to law we are in essence throwing the proverbial "monkey wrench" into the wheels of justice. TESTING FOR INSANITY At the center of the legal use of insanity lies the mens rea, the mental element of a crime or the intent to commit a criminal act. (Senna G- 10) Every crime involves a physical act, or actus reus, and a mental act, or mens rea, the non-physical cause of behavior. The difficulty here lies in analyzing the mens rea. In order to do this lawyers apply one of several rules used by psychologists. These rules range from the Irresistible Impulse Test to the M'Naghten Rule.


Each of these rules approach mental illness capacity in a different way. The M'Naghten Rule, also known as the right-wrong test, arose in 1843 during the trial of Daniel M'Naghten who argued that he was not criminally responsible for his actions because he suffered from delusions at the time of the killing. (Jeffery 60) The M'Naghten Rule says that, a defendant may be excused from criminal responsibility if at the time of the commission of the act the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from a disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and the quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know that he was doing what was wrong. So according to this rule, a person is basically insane if he or she is unable to distinguish between right and wrong as a result of some mental disability. Criticisms of the M'Naghten Rule has come from both legal and medical professions.


Many criticize that the test is unsound in its view of human psychology. Psychologists have said the theory of partial insanity or monomania, that is that a person could be sane in all other respects and yet have a cognitive delusion, has also been exploded by the more modern theory of the integrated psyche. (Gerber 30). Additionally, the test is criticized for defining responsibility solely in terms of cognition. While cognitive symptoms may reveal disorder, they alone are not sufficient to give an adequate picture of such a disorder or determine responsibility. Also, it has been shown that individuals deemed insane by psychologists have possessed the ability to differentiate right from wrong. The Irresistible Impulse Test (IIT) is a rule excludes from criminal responsibility a person whose mental disease makes it impossible to control personal conduct.


Unlike the M'Naghten Rule, the criminal may be able to distinguish between right and wrong, but may be unable to exercise self-control because of a disabling mental condition. Normally this test is combined with the M'Naghten Rule. Many of the criticisms of the (IIT) center around the claim that the view of volition is so extremely narrow that it can be mis ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: insanity defense, mental disease, mens rea, mental illness, criminal behavior

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