Psychology in Law

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crimes. Statistics report however that the amount of people who are released from treatment facilities just months after their acquittal is less than one out of every four hundred defendants in the United States. In fact, during most of our country’s history, a successful insanity plea amounted to the equivalent of a long-term prison sentence. However, due to the increasing success of treatments for the mentally insane, the average time for individuals spent in a mental institution is depleting. In order to combat this situation, some states maintain control of offenders even after they are released from hospitals.

Besides NGRI, there are other verdicts which individuals may take. Guilty but mentally ill is a verdict stating that defendants are guilty of committing a crime but are also suffering from a mental illness that should be treated during their imprisonment. This verdict however has been found to be unsatisfactory because it has not reduced the number of not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdicts. Another verdict is the guilty with diminished capacity. This verdict states that a defendant’s metnal dysfunctioning is viewed as an extenuating circumstance that the court should take into consideration in determining the precise crime of which he or she is guilty.

Since 1937 states have begun to put sex offenders into a special category. Mentally disordered sex offenders are individuals who are repeatedly found guilty of sex crimes that have a mental disorder. Regardless of their special categorization, these individuals are still judged to be responsible for their actions. The only special treatment mentally disordered sex offenders receive is that they are committed to a mental health facility rather than prison. The reason for this is because sex offenders are often abused so badly in a prison atmosphere. Although, today due to the increasing amount of sex offenders in our society, legislatures and courts are now les concerned than they used to be about the rights and needs of these individuals. Some sex offenders are even required to be committed to a mental institution after serving their sentence in jail.

In addition to the role clinicians play in criminal commitment procedures, they are also used in the judicial system to determine whether or not the individual is unstable during the time of the trial. Mental incompetence is the term used to define a state of mental instability that leaves defendants unable to understand the legal charges and proceedings they are facing and unable to prepare an adequate defense with their attorney. Judges order a psychological evaluation which usually is an impatient basis when the issue of competence has been raised. There are as many as forty thousand competency evaluations conducted in the United States each year. Twenty percent of the defendants who receive such an evaluation are in fact found to be incompetent.

In conclusion, psychology affects our judicial system by helping the courts determine if the defendants are responsible for their crimes and whether or not they are capable of defending themselves. Clinicians are used in order to arrive at appropriate verdicts for the individual being trialed. The “mentally insane” should not be treated as criminals, however, the criteria for whether or not an individual is put into this category needs improvement. The ambiguities of mental health professional’s testimonies are the major problem within this process. Currently the M’Naghten test is the preference of most courts however it is clear that a more valid assessment is needed in determining what constitutes as “mentally insane.”

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