Mad About the Insanity Defence

Insanity, is it a game that criminals can play to get out of a death sentence, or is it actually a disease that effects certain people? Insanity has been a subject of debate for many years. The majority of people in the United States feel that there is just to great of a chance for someone to pretend they are mentally ill. Instead of having the mentally ill get the treatment they need a jury is sending them a way to spend the rest of their life behind bars or even to be executed. If someone cannot tell the difference between right and wrong then how can they be convicted of a crime if they didn’t understand it was a crime? The insane need to be treated with psychiatric help and then need to be made into productive citizens. Perhaps if more of the criminally insane were treated, doctors might someday find away to stop the next Son of Sam from killing.

What makes someone insane? Are they simple born like that or is it something that can happen over time? There are many different answers to this. One is that they are born mentally ill, another is brain tumors or injuries to the brain. One thing remains a fact though, that all criminals are not created equal and all punishments should not be the same. Indeed, there are countle

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These orphans of society are often compelled by an emotional or mental imbalance that provokes them to act savagely toward their fellow human beings. There is little evidence of an increasing number of violent acts made by patients with psychosis, but literature suggests that patients with major mental disorders have an increased risk for committing such acts compared with the general population (Rollin, 1969). That might prevent some of the mentally ill from doing jail time. Rafter (1997) discusses the subject of criminals being so badly abused in jails that most of them are killed by fellow inmates before their sentence is up.

Society views the mentally insane criminals as a minority that needs to be locked up in jail, not mental patients that need treatment in a hospital only to be released two years later. Some legal experts argue society has a powerful practical reason to rethink its habit of imprisoning the criminally disturbed: sending them to hospitals might keep the public safer. The key to understanding the criminally insane is treatment. What’s needed is more, and better, voluntary treatment. ss levels of criminal activity that prove to land offenders in jail, with a percentage of those criminals committing their crimes under the duress of mental illness. It would be far safer to have the insane treated and released, than released with no treatment to reek havoc on society. Prison inmates usually don't get any treatment at all and they're released when their time is up, no matter what their mental state. People committed to hospitals are treated and held until doctors decide they're no longer dangerous. These prisoners, while deserving of severe punishment, often do not have full control of their faculties. Very popular, but erroneous, assumption is that the insane, through the insanity defense can escape punishment. To some experts, be they jurists, psychiatrists, psychologists, or legislators, the linkage represents and oxymoron- a combination of contradictory terms; these experts … indicate that when someone is found not guilty by reason of insanity, that verdict denotes that we do not find the person culpable or blameworthy; hence, no punishment should follow.

Approximate Word count = 938
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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