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Essay On Dismiss The Defense

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Dismiss the Defense

How many criminals are we allowing to slip through the Law on the grounds of insanity and are they actually crazy or just crazy smart. The insanity plea allows criminals with a psychotic disorder to be reprieved of a trial because they weren’t working of their own accord during the time of their offense (Bikel, Ofra). Although psychosis can influence mentally and physically (IMH) the plea of insanity is an unjustified form of defense in the American Judicial System.

The insanity plea is a unjustified form of defense because of many different reasons. To start with “when someone is developing a serious mental illness with psychosis, such as schizophrenia, they usually do not know it” says Gerald Goodman, PhD in psychology (Kam). It is not possible to say your psychotic if you can not distinguish or acknowledge the existence of your disorder. The definition of psychosis is a severe mental disorder in which thoughts and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality. Impairment of thoughts or emotions can be a cause and effect of a crime, but it can also result in the inability to understand the fact that impaired thoughts or emotions are part of a psychotic lifestyle. People with psychosis are not competent enough to distinguish the line between fact and fantasy (IMH). …show more content…

Pure malingering is making up a non-existent disorder in order to get out of duty or gain benefits such as being reprieved from tria (Harris, Michael R)l. Malingering is more likely to occur when the personal stakes are extremely high and no other options appear viable. Escaping criminal liability and potential incarceration is a common motivation to malinger. The existence of malingering in the population of criminal patients who are seeking compensation has been estimated to be 25% to 50% (Moorhead, Joel F). Malingering is

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