Insanity as a defence in criminal law

Abstract

I am glad to have this opportunity to speak on the psychiatric aspects because I feel that I have something to say which needs to be said. But let me explain at the very outset that my main object in presenting these comments is to contribute towards restricting the areas of misunderstanding which sometimes arise between the judicature and the psychiatrist. Problems of forensic psychiatry are the most complex because of the very nature of the field of study. For here we are concerned not with fixed anatomical structures or physiological functions but with all the vagaries of human conduct and behaviour, both normal and abnormal. This is indeed a very vast subject which cannot be condensed in a brief introduction without creating mental confusion. It is for this reason that I have chosen just one of the most outstanding problems of forensic psychiatry which is the issue of insanity as a defence in criminal law. The legal issues involved in determining responsibility, in convicting and in sentencing have corresponding medical issues in the diagnosis, care and treatment of the abnormal offender and it is in this area that mutual understanding and cooperation between law and medicine present the greatest challenge.