...Eddy English 1213-308 24 Mar 2010 Sane or Insane Albert Fish was so demented that he stuck alcohol soaked cotton balls into his anus after setting them on fire. He was also found with twenty nine needles stuck in his body between his anus and his scrotum. Fish was also found guilty of the killings of fifteen little boys and mutilating one hundred others. He said that God told him to do it. The doctors said that he suffered from a religious psychosis (Rawlins). Some people seem to get away with these kinds of heinous crimes because of insanity and others, who really have mental problems, get locked away in prison and forgotten about. The definition of insanity is “the mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct his/her affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior” (Insanity). In other words, a person may live in a fantasy world and believe that things are going on around them that really are not. Also, a person may not be able to control their urges. For instance, a person may get the urge to flip someone the middle finger that cuts them off in traffic. This would be an uncontrollable impulsive behavior. Many serial killers use this line of defense as a strategy to get put into a mental hospital rather than prison. Mental hospitals give prisoners less rules and more freedoms than do Pierce 2 prisons. Some killers though, are truly insane. There is a fine line, as well as a good...
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
...reason, disease of the mind and not to know that doing or/ not to know it’s wrong. Burden of proof on D to show the balance of probabilities they are insane. It is generally accepted that there are problems with insanity. In only about 30 crown court cases a year is insanity used as a defence successfully in England and wales – this is a bad thing as the majority of offenders, prisoners have issues and self-medicate on drugs and become addicted and underlying health problems are never addressed. And therefore insanity defence could be used but isn’t. Unfair on people who could have qualified to use it but didn’t and are convicted. There are different disposals of it whether you are in the magistrates or in the crown court. ‘Disposed’ of differently in Magistrates where an order made under the mental health act 1983. Prosecution can raise insanity as an issue. Problems: 1. ‘Disease of the mind’ – M’Naughten in 1843, led to case law that distinguishes internal and external factors and as a result you get cases like Hennessy and Quick (diabetes). Insane meant something else back in 1843 and wouldn’t be associated with things such as diabetes and sleepwalking. Mind doesn’t mean brain; sleepwalking (burgess) and epilepsy (can’t remember case). (600,000 people with epilepsy in the UK, they don’t all want to be labelled as insane). Epilepsy and diabetes are physical conditions that lead to mental illness. 2. Label of insanity is stigmatising and inaccurate – Stigma associated...
Words: 1071 - Pages: 5
...almost as much as the idea of serial killers. Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID for short, is a disorder where two or more distinct identities are present in, and take control of, an individual. Day dreaming and getting lost in the moment are examples of mild forms of dissociation many humans experiences everyday. A person with Dissociative Identity Disorder experiences a much more severe type of dissociation. For these people it is a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or sense of identity. People with DID each personality, known as an alter, takes complete control over the person’s conscious mind. In some cases, each different alter may not even know there are other alter trying to take over the same mind they are. In most cases there is one alter that is “stronger” than the others and dominates the person’s awareness. When a different personality comes into play, the dominate personality cannot remember what happened during that time. Amongst all these different personalities usually comes different outlooks, temperaments, body language, names, and handwritings. Each individual can have anywhere from two to 100 different alters, with the average number being ten. This disorder usually stems from severe physical and sexual abuse during childhood. The child can become detached from reality and goes into the state of disassociation. Disassociation is used as an defense and coping mechanism to protect the children...
Words: 1431 - Pages: 6
...Insanity is defined as “The principal legal doctrine permitting consideration of mental abnormality in assessing criminal liability. Those acquitted of criminal charges as Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity are typically required to spend an indeterminate period of treatment in a secure mental health facility until they are no longer dangerous to self or others”.(Greene & Heilbrun). Each state carries its own statutes on how to deal with the insanity defense. In the state of California the follow the M’Naghten rule. The M’Naghten rule was established in 1843 after an Englishman by the name of Daniel M’Naghten murdered the secretary of the British prime minister. M’Naghten suffered from delusions that made him believe that he was being stalked and plotted against. He was charged with murder and plead not guilty by reason of insanity. He got off under his insanity plea, but ended up in a mental institution for the remainder of his life. This infuriated some people so Queen Victoria imposed the M’Naghten rule as a stricter guideline (or test) for the insanity defense. This rule implies that a person that commits a crime did not understand the difference between right and wrong at the time the crime had taken place. It must be proved by the defense that the person on trial has some sort of “disease of the mind” that would cause them to commit the crimes they have. It excuses the behavior that took place in the event that insanity can be proved. Because the M’Naghten rule is still...
Words: 1073 - Pages: 5
...considered legally insane. The individual must have a severe mental disease or defect, their lawyer must prove that they were at the time of the crime. We need to abolish the insanity plea and make the death penalty the law of the land again. An individual accused of a crime can pled guilty that they committed the crime, or argue that they are not responsible for it because of a mental illness. “Not guilty by reason of insanity.” There’s an important distinction between pleading guilty by reason of insanity and diminished capacity. Diminished capacity is pleading to a lesser crime. Pleading insanity is a full defense to a crime, it’s equivalent to pleading “not guilty.” The insanity defense is a compromise on part of society and the law. Society believes that criminals should be punished for the crimes they committed and society believe that people who are ill should receive treatment for their illness. When we talk about the insanity defense, we go to the M'Naghten rule. The M'Naghten rule is the required test that must be given before the jury can decide whether the individual on trial knew that he or she could not tell right from wrong. This is the first famous legal test for insanity. In 1843, Englishman Daniel M’Naghten shot and killed the secretary of the British Prime Minister. M’Naghten believed that the Prime Minister was conspiring against him. The court ruled M'Naghten not guilty “by reason of insanity,” then he was placed in a mental institution. This case caused a public...
Words: 2718 - Pages: 11
...Crownsville Hospital Center, formerly known as Crownsville Hospital for the Negro Insane, was founded in 1911 and is the third institution in the United States to be erected for the exclusive admittance of African American residents. It was purchased by the Board of Managers from the Maryland General Assembly for $19,000. They agreed that there had to be something done about the vast amount of homeless and mentally unstable African American population in the Maryland and in particular, Baltimore. They voted that the hospital should not actually be in Baltimore, hence their decision to buy the plot of former tobacco farmland in Crownsville to establish the institution. Starting in 1911, the builders of the first building were actually 12 patients ordered to build their new home. As the months wore on, more patients were transferred to the camps to...
Words: 895 - Pages: 4
...schizophrenia? Is it because clinicians from majority groups either intentionally or unintentionally misdiagnose African-Americans due to their cultural differences? Or maybe it’s because of the fact that African-Americans have always been on average economically disadvantaged compared to whites. The reasons are most likely a combination of these factors, and others may exist. The idea of “racial schizophrenia” dates back to the 1960’s at the Ionia State Hospital for the criminally insane in Michigan, one of the nation’s most notorious insane asylums. During this time, the civil-rights movement was in full force. The author, Jonathan Metzl, researched the diagnosis of schizophrenia among many of the patients admitted to this hospital over the years. He also published a book about it called, The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease. He discovered in his findings that many African-Americans during this time were admitted for armed-robbery, and property destruction, and considered insane, ultimately leading to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. These short court sentences were eventually turned into a lifelong incarceration. The Diagnostic Statistical Manual 2nd Edition (DSM-II), which was the version used at the time, listed symptoms of schizophrenia by using words such as “hostility” and “aggression” to justify this diagnosis of black men. Metzl discovered dramatic racial and gender shifts in schizophrenia diagnoses towards the growing population of African-American...
Words: 878 - Pages: 4
...The Insanity Defense The insanity defense refers to that branch of the concept of insanity which defines the extent to which men accused of crimes may be relieved of criminal responsibility by virtue of mental disease. 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. Due to these aforementioned 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. 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...
Words: 3143 - Pages: 13
...child's upbringing. Some people read the morning paper to keep up on current events while others watch the evening news, but regardless of the method they are all looking to see what sort of crimes have been committed that day. Crime has become so common that people skip reading about simple offences such as breaking and entering and theft and move on to the more interesting violent crimes such as forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. However, every once in a while a crime occurs that is so tragic it shocks the nation back into reality and makes people question their safety even with their family, neighbors and friends. These are the crimes that remind us that we walk hand in hand with the criminally insane on a daily basis without realizing it. But if they are insane should they be held responsible for the crimes they commit? Should they be imprisoned or hospitalized? Most people believe the offenders who are responsible for these crimes should be punished for their actions regardless of the reasons behind them, but they also want the innocent protected. So what is to be done when the offender of the crime is also the victim of mental illness? Examining the possible...
Words: 1558 - Pages: 7
...The disturbing human being that is Edward Gein roamed the earth from 1906 to 1984, he once said, “When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things. One part wants me to be real nice and sweet, and the other part wonders what her head would look like on a stick.” According to a recent study, five percent of Crane High school students have heard of this psychopath. This paper is based solely on the unbelievable yet intriguing crimes Ed Gein had committed when he was alive. He was a very unusual human, born on a farm and raised by a mother who was rather intimidating. In forty years his mother passed and he was left to take care of the farm all by himself. In the next few years he was to become a grave robber, a cannibal, a necrophiliac, and he took up arts and crafts in body parts. He is seen as probably the most weird and bizarre serial killer of the twentieth century, and probably...
Words: 2160 - Pages: 9
...searching for angles to start the games of deceit. They also represent confidence, strength, calmness, and always seem right for the job offered. Assessment, manipulation, abandonment, and ascension are the phases of psychopathic behavior which are concisely explained in very simple terms for easy understanding. The phases enable the reader to clearly understand each phase that is relevant in a psychopath’s process towards their main goals of accomplishment. The authors have clearly demonstrated how the strategies of manipulation and deceit start in the very beginning stages with the hiring process. Dr. Babiak and Dr. Hare have explicitly shown countless examples of case studies with information which ascertain the true differences of criminally insane individuals and psychopaths. These psychopaths climb up the corporate ladder utilizing disingenuous skills while...
Words: 1695 - Pages: 7
...Early development of the criminal mind John Sanders AIU Online For many, determining the cause of crime would cease crime. Others believe that there is a genetic disorder which causes criminal behavior. This debate has been raging for centuries and will continue for many more years. Some opinions believe that the environment a person is in plays a part in the decision making, and to some degree that may be true. An example of this idea may be an unemployed parent who is trying to feed the children and out of desperation turns to crime as a way of fulfilling a need. In a majority of cases, criminals are defined by the crimes that they commit. Some crimes are considered to be less offensive than others and some crimes are only crimes because the behavior or activity was made criminal by legislative action which criminalized that behavior. For an example of this we need only to look to the people of the Appalachia region of the eastern United States. Early in the U.S history when the immigrants settled they brought with them their ability to distil whiskey. To those who lived in that region home brewed whiskey was part of their daily lives. U.S. legislated laws prohibiting the making and distributing of their liquor and a new culture emerged in the outlaw bootlegger. This outlaw was responsible for supplying the demand for the now illegal “corn squeeze ins” as well as the creator of a national pastime namely NASCAR. That is one example of what creates a criminal...
Words: 1794 - Pages: 8
...This positivist school searched for scientific evidence of what made someone a criminal. Cesare Lombroso is considered to be the first of the positivist criminologists, as he applied the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin to criminal behavior. It is important to note that Lombroso was by no means the only contributor to the positivist school of criminology nor was the positivist school solely focused on biological aspects. Instead its main focus was the explanation of criminal behavior through scientific study. However, due to the limited scope of this paper, this section will be focused on Lombroso’s theory and its influence. Lombroso wanted to find a biological explanation for crime, hereby opposing the classical view of crime which stated that crime existed because of the choices people made. According to him, criminals were a specific type of people that differed from non-criminals. These criminals, born criminals as he called them, had certain physical characteristics that set them apart. Taking inspiration from Darwin’s theory of evolution, he concluded that these physical traits were atavistic. This meant that the criminal was a throwback to an earlier evolutionary species of human, thus meaning that the criminal was less evolved, making...
Words: 1679 - Pages: 7
...Always discuss coincidence (Thabo Meli, Royall) and BRD (prosecution, differs for offence and defence) Chapter 5 – Homicide: Murder and Involuntary Manslaughter 5.1 Patterns of homicide 423 Study by A.Wallace. 1968-81 * -relationship of victim to offender. * -homicide is a crime that is socially, historically and culturally determined. * -homicide comprises a variety of offenders and victims in different social settings. * -Homicide in NSW is largely interpersonal in nature, rather than instrumental or ideological. * -Majority of interpersonal killings involved intimates. * -Homicide patterns reflect cultural norms. * -homicide is spontaneous rather than premeditated crime. * -Homicide offenders exhibit a wide range of moral culpability. 5.3 Murder S18 Crimes Act (1900) NSW S 18. (1) (a) Murder shall be taken to have been committed where the act of the accused, or thing by him omitted to be done, causing the death charged, was done or omitted with reckless indifference to human life, or with intent to kill or inflict grievous bodily harm upon some person, or done in an attempt to commit, or during or immediately after the commission, by the accused, or some accomplice with him, of a crime punishable by penal servitude for life or for 25 years. (b) Every other punishable homicide shall be taken to be manslaughter. S 18 (2)(a) No act or omission which was not malicious, or for which the accused had lawful cause or excuse, shall...
Words: 27347 - Pages: 110
...Abnormal Psychology 2300 The Diagnosis of Edward Gein Rainy River Community College Delaney Peters 13 November 2013 Edward Theodore Gein was born to Augusta and George Gein on August 27th, 1906 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Edward had an older brother named Henry. George Gein was a violent alcoholic who was frequently unemployed. Augusta on the other hand followed to a different beat she was a very religious individual whom had very harsh opinions on other women. Often times, Augusta would refer to other woman as prostitutes and instruments of the devil. According to Dr. George Arndt, a psychiatrist that studied the case of Edward Gein, Augusta’s obsessive and negative perspective on women rubbed off on her children, more specifically on Edward. She reserved time every afternoon to read her children verses from the bible, usually selecting graphic verses from the Old Testament dealing with death, murder and divine retribution. Without surprise, Edward himself became a target for bullies. Classmates and teachers recalled off-putting mannerisms, such as seemingly random laughter, as if he were laughing at his own personal jokes. Despite his poor social development, he did surprisingly well in school and was often viewed as an average academic student. Many sources cite that Edward’s mother Augusta often beat her children because she was convinced that they were going to become just like their father, a drunken failure...
Words: 2336 - Pages: 10
