Criminology 11th Edition by Larry Siegel

تمرين 1

Something Snapped
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) believes a person should not be held legally responsible for crime if his or her behavior meets the following standard developed by legal expert Richard Bonnie:
A person charged with a criminal offense should be found not guilty by reason of insanity if it is shown that as a result of mental disease or mental retardation he was unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct at the time of the offense.
As used in this standard, the terms mental disease and mental retardation include only those severely abnormal mental conditions that grossly and demonstrably impair a person's perception or understanding of reality and that are not attributable primarily to the voluntary ingestion of alcohol or other psychoactive substances.

You are part of a research team with expertise on forensic criminology. Your team has been asked by the judge to investigate the case of Bill W., a young man who has murdered his father, and to make a written sentencing recommendation. You discover that Bill has a history of horrendous sexual and physical abuse at the hands of his father. When interviewed, Bill admits that it is wrong to kill," but that something just "snapped" when he saw his dad with his arm around his younger brother, who also had cuts and bruises. Have one half of the research team write a brief recommending that Bill's behavior be excused because of his prior history of mistreatment. Have the other half write an opinion supporting a criminal conviction because he fails to meet the test of insanity according to the APA definition. Have each group make an oral presentation of their findings and have the team leader choose the most persuasive argument to present to the judge.