PSYCH 130 Study Guide - Final Guide: American Law Institute, Insanity Defense, Irresistible Impulse
11 May 2018
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Chapter 16 Legal and Ethical issues
1. Criminal commitment: people with psychological disorder who have broken the law or
who are alleged to have done so are subject to criminal commitment: a procedure that
confines a person in a mental or forensic hospital either for determination of
competency to stand trial or after acquittal by reason of insanity
a. The insanity defense: the legal argument that a defendant should not be held
responsible for an illegal act if it is attributable to a psychological disorder or
intellectual disability that interferes with rationality or that results from some
other excusing circumstance
b. Landmark Cases and Laws
i. Irresistible impulse: if a pathological impulse or uncontrollable drive
compelled the person to commit the criminal act, an insanity defense is
legitimate
ii. The M’Naghte rule was forulated i the afterath of a urder i
England in 1843. To establish a dense of insanity, it must be clearly
proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused
was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as
not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing
iii. Volitional test: 1880s Mental illness made the person unable to control
himself even though he knew the difference between right and wrong
iv. The Durham Test: what constitutes a mental disease or defect was left
open to jurisdictions and mental health professionals to decide.
v. American Law institute guidelines: In 1962, the American Law institute
(ALI) proposed its own guidelines
1. Person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of
such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks
substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality
(wrongfulness) of his conduct or conform his conduct to the
requirements of law
2. As used i the artile, the ters etal disease or defet do ot
include an abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or
otherwise antisocial conduct
vi. Comprehensive Crime control act 1984 The defendant, as a result of
severe mental disease or defect was unable to appreciate the nature and
quality or the wrongfulness of his acts
vii. Insanity defense reform act
1. General involves a diagnosable mental disorder
2. Individual did not know what they did was wrong or illegal
3. Individual did not understand the consequences of his actions
4. Not used often
viii. Current Insanity Pleas
1. Not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) plea: No dispute over
whether the person actually committed the crime
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