Criminal Responsibility and Mental Disorder Law

Criminal Responsibility and Mental Disorder

• Criminal responsibility is determined by the presence of mens rea (guilty mind) and actus reus (guilty act).
• Mens rea involves the defendant's free will and ability to understand the nature and consequences of their actions.
• Actus reus refers to the physical act itself, and the mens rea focuses on the intent.
• A mental disorder can negate mens rea, eliminating the intent to commit the crime.

Historical Legal Tests for Mental Capacity

• Wild Beast Test: A historical test for sanity, essentially if the accused was acting at the level of a wild animal, infant or brute.
• M'Naghten Rules (1843): A crucial shift towards a more structured framework. These rules require the defendant to prove they either:
  • Did not understand the nature or quality of their actions, OR
  • Did not understand that their actions were wrong.

US Law - American Law Institute (ALI) Test of Insanity

• ALI Test (1962): The test requires for the defense that a person lacks the capacity to appreciate the criminality of their conduct or to conform to the law, due to a mental disease or defect.
• ALI and Personality Disorders: Personality disorders do not typically qualify as a defense under this test.
• Modern US Criteria: Several states follow the ALI approach, with some adding "severe" mental illness as a requirement.

Canadian Law - Not Criminally Responsible on Account of a Mental Disorder (NCRMD)

• NCRMD: A defense where the person lacks the ability to understand the nature and quality of the act or omission or to know it was wrong because of a mental disorder at the time of the crime. This is the crucial element.
• Criminal Code of Canada: Defines mental disorder as a disease of the mind, excluding voluntary/involuntary intoxication and transient states (e.g., mania).
• Personality disorders: The Canadian courts are hesitant to accept personality disorders as grounds for an NCRMD defense, except in rare cases where the disorder directly resulted in the crime.
• "Nature and Quality" vs. "Knowing it was wrong": "Nature and quality" focuses on the physical consequences of the act; "knowing it was wrong" involves both legal and moral wrongfulness.
• Causality and Justification: The mental disorder must have caused the criminal act as opposed to simply being present at the time. It must justify the crime.

NCRMD Dispositions

• Absolute discharge: No supervision; may still have medical oversight.
• Conditional discharge: Supervision conditions, revocation possibility.
• Detention in forensic psychiatric facility: Annual reviews, with a limitation on detention duration.
• Historical Shifts: The previous criteria often required the accused to be no longer dangerous or ill; current practices recognize some mental disorders are lifelong and manageable.

Biases and Media Portrayals

• Biases: Studies indicate potential biases, such as illusory correlation & availability heuristic.
• Media portrayals: Media depictions can overstate the correlation between mental illness and crime, when in reality, the majority of offenders are not mentally ill.
• "Great Four-Fold Table of Life": A flawed (overly simple) perspective on recidivism in mentally ill offenders.