Should a Personality Disorder Qualify as a Mental Disease in Insanity Adjudication? September 2010 By Richard Bonnie Should a Personality Disorder Qualify as a Mental Disease in Insanity Adjudication? The determinative issue in applying the insanity defense is whether the defendant experienced a legally relevant functional impairment at the time of the offense. Categorical exclusion of personality disorders from the definition of mental disease is clinically and morally arbitrary because it may lead to unfair conviction of a defendant with a personality disorder who actually experienced severe, legally relevant impairments at the time of the crime. There is no need to consider such a drastic approach in most states and in the federal courts, where the sole test of insanity is whether the defendant was - unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct at the time of the offense. This is because the only symptoms that are legally relevant in such jurisdictions are those that impair reality-testing and thereby affect the person’s capacity to understand the nature and consequences of her actions. However, if the test of insanity includes a - volitional prong‖ (inability to control one’s behavior), some way must be found to limit the scope of the defense to the core cases (involving psychotic conditions) to which it has traditionally been applied, and to prevent a shift toward a deterministic account of criminal conduct - i.e., “people can’t help being who they are and doing what they do.” The best way of accomplishing this is to limit the definition of mental disease to severe disorders characterized by gross disturbances of the person’s capacity to understand reality. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics Areas of focus Ethics Richard Bonnie Richard J. Bonnie is a professor of public policy at the Batten School and Director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He teaches and writes about health law and policy, bioethics, criminal law, and public policies relating to mental health, substance abuse and public health. Read full bio Related Content Richard Bonnie Essentials Of Public Health Ethics Research Interventions Used by Virginia's Colleges to Respond to Student Mental Health Crises Research Objective: This study examined interventions by colleges in 2008–2009 to respond to students during mental health crises. Methods: Public (N=15) and private (N=25) four-year colleges and two-year community colleges (N=23) in Virginia were surveyed about academic policies governing responses to apparent mental health crises among students and how often they were invoked.
Richard Bonnie Richard J. Bonnie is a professor of public policy at the Batten School and Director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. He teaches and writes about health law and policy, bioethics, criminal law, and public policies relating to mental health, substance abuse and public health. Read full bio
Interventions Used by Virginia's Colleges to Respond to Student Mental Health Crises Research Objective: This study examined interventions by colleges in 2008–2009 to respond to students during mental health crises. Methods: Public (N=15) and private (N=25) four-year colleges and two-year community colleges (N=23) in Virginia were surveyed about academic policies governing responses to apparent mental health crises among students and how often they were invoked.