Mentally Disordered Offenders: Perspectives from Law and Social ScienceJohn Monahan, Henry J. Steadman Springer Science & Business Media, 1983 M05 31 - 302 pages In its narrowest sense, "mentally disordered offender" refers to the approximately twenty thousand persons per year in the United States who are institutionalized as not guilty by reason of insanity, incompetent to stand trial, and mentally disordered sex offenders, as well as those prisoners transferred to mental hospitals. The real importance of mentally disordered offenders, however, may not lie in this figure. Rather, it may reside in the symbolic role that mentally disordered offenders play for the rest of the legal system. The 3,140 persons residing in state institutions on an average day in 1978 as not guilty by reason of insanity (see Chapter 4), for example, are surely worthy of concern in their own right. But they represent only 1% of the 307,276 persons residing in state and federal prisons in the same period (U. S. Dept. of Justice, 1981). From a purely numeric point of view, the insanity defense truly is "much ado about little" (Pasewark & Pasewark, 1982). The central importance of understanding these persons, however, is that they serve a symbolic function in justifying the imprisonment of the other 99%. The insanity defense, as Stone (1975) has noted, is "the exception that proves the rule. " By exculpating a relatively few people from being criminally responsible for their behavior, the law inculpates all other law violators as liable for social sanction. |
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Contents
Incompetency to Stand Trial Developments in the Law | 3 |
Defendants Incompetent to Stand Trial | 39 |
Acquittal by Reason of Insanity Developments in the Law | 65 |
Defendants Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity | 109 |
Special Dispositional Alternatives for Abnormal Offenders Developments in the Law | 133 |
Mentally Disordered Sex Offenders | 191 |
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Mentally Disordered Offenders: Perspectives from Law and Social Science John Monahan,Henry J. Steadman No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
abnormal offender programs attorney behavior California charges Citation civil commitment clinical Code Ann commitment statute conduct confinement constitutional convicted counsel Court held criteria D.C. Cir decision defendant's Department of Corrections Department of Mental detention determination disease or defect disordered sex offender due process ex rel examination federal Fifth Amendment found incompetent guilty hearing incompetent defendants incompetent to stand indeterminate commitment inmate insanity acquittees insanity defense insanity plea institution involuntary involuntary commitment issue judicial jurisdictions jury Law Review legislation M'Naghten maximum security MDSO ment mental condition mental disease mental health facility mental hospital mentally disordered offenders mentally disordered sex mentally ill Model Penal Code Monahan NGRI period plea prior prison psychiatric psychopath question reason of insanity recidivism release right to treatment sentence stand trial standard Stat statutory Steadman substantial Supp Supreme Court tence transfer Vitek York