Psychiatry and Criminal Culpability

Front Cover
John Wiley & Sons, 1995 M02 28 - 436 pages
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PSYCHIATRY AND CRIMINAL CULPABILITY

How do we distinguish between sin and sickness? Few cases in recent memory so well typify the current confusion over this question as that of Jeffrey Dahmer. The confessed killer of fifteen young men, Dahmer had sex with and cannibalized his victims' bodies. Yet, because he was not found to be mentally ill—the threshold requirement in tests of legal insanity-—he was convicted and sentenced to 936 years imprisonment. How is it that such a severely disturbed person as Dahmer is adjudged sane and therefore culpable, while "Twinkiedefense" killer, Dan White and would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley, Jr., are deemed not guilty by reason of insanity? What are the origins of tests for criminal responsibility, and how is mental illness defined under them? Can causal links be shown to exist between specific crimes and disorders?

Psychiatry and Criminal Culpability explores, in-depth, these questions and many others at the heart of one of the most controversial issues in our criminal justice system today. Throughout, Dr. Ralph Slovenko, an acknowledged expert whose professional experience straddles both the worlds of psychiatry and the law, brings a wealth of scholarship and direct experience to bear on the subject. Citing numerous landmark cases and historical formulations of criminal responsibility dating back to biblical times, he traces the evolution of current legal and psychiatric notions of culpability and the relationship between culpability and insanity. Writing for both a mental health and legal audience, Dr. Slovenko clearly and eloquently addresses a wide range of important topical issues. He explains the distinctions between the defenses of not guilty by reason of insanity, guilty but mentally ill, and diminished capacity. He identifies the types of mental illness that currently qualify under the test of criminal responsibility, including disorders that psychiatrists do not regard as psychotic, but which, nevertheless, many experts assert negate responsibility. He explores the role of the mental health professional as an expert character witness in cases where it is uncertain whether the accused committed the crime in question. And much more.

Fascinating, thought-provoking, and enlightening, Psychiatry and Criminal Culpability helps guide mental health and legal professionals through the moral and technical complexities of one of the knottiest issues of our day.

 

Contents

INTRODUCTION
1
The MNaghten and Other Rules
17
Analysis of Criminal Responsibility
33
Criminal Responsibility
51
45
63
Impairment of Cognition or Control
119
Burden of Proof and Psychiatric Testimony on Insanity
133
Diminished Capacity
151
10
197
Syndrome Evidence
219
1
225
Psychiatric Postdicting
239
Psychiatric Testimony on Credibility
259
67
270
Whatever Happened to Sin?
275
119
335

8
169
9
179
169
342
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About the author (1995)

RALPH SLOVENKO, PhD, is Professor of Law and Psychiatry at Wayne State University Law School. Dr. Slovenko earned BE, LLB, MA, and PhD degrees from Tulane University. He is a member of the American, Kansas, Louisiana, and Michigan Bar Associations; a scientific associate of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and amicus of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law; and frequently serves as an expert witness. The author of numerous books and articles, he writes a weekly column in the Detroit Legal News, is a regular commentator in the Journal of Psychiatry and Law, and is the editor of the American Series in Behavioral Science and Law. He is also on the Board of Editors of Behavioral Sciences and the Law, Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, Journal of Psychiatry and Law, and Medicine and Law. For his book, Psychiatry and Law, Dr. Slovenko received the Manfred Guttmacher Award from the American Psychiatric Association.

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