Mental illnesses are often hard to detect, but in recent times, they have come under the spotlight mostly due to shooters going on a shooting spree. The law defines insanity using out-dated precedence from 19 th century England; inability to distinguish wrong or right. However, new parameters for insanity heavily rely on psychiatric evaluations. Psychosis is a form of mental illness (psychiatric disorder) where the afflicted loses touch with reality, such as the case of Andrea Yates, who murdered her five children following temporary insanity as a result of a psychotic breakdown (Roche, 2002). She was initially found guilty, the jury dismissed her plea for insanity, but when the chief witness, a psychiatrist, reneged on his testimony, questions arose, and still arise, concerning the aptitude of the courts to decide possible psychosis-induced crimes.
Andrea Yates had a history of being hospitalized on several occasions in her lifetime (Roche, 2002). The criminal justice system, the jurors specifically, saw a woman who looked sane. Temporary insanity is often hard to prove to people, primarily because most schizophrenics and patients with other forms of psychosis experience it in episodes that come and go unexpectedly ( Nestor, Woodhull, Newell, et al., 2018). It is yet unclear what kind of link there is between psychosis and likelihood to commit a crime, but the hypotheses suggest people with schizophrenia and Anti-social Personality Disorder (ASPD) are in danger of hurting themselves and others in an episode. In most cases where some crime is committed, the afflicted person usually has a history of similar behaviors. While people with APD might be hard to spot, schizophrenic patients are more volatile in their episodes.
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A psychiatrist is first, a doctor, and secondly, their profession necessitates them to take care of people’s brains, the control unit of a human being’s system. Nestor et al. (2018) found a high correlation between childhood trauma, addiction to hard drugs, and criminality for people with one form of psychosis or the other. Despite statistics not being general knowledge enough for the public, including jurors to pass a fair and informed judgment. Likewise, even for professional psychiatrists like Park Dietz, being paid $500 per hour to testify will surely tempt any doctor to break the Hippocratic Oath. As the brain is delicate and cases fuelled by psychosis create a public spectacle, perhaps it is best if psychiatrists volunteer testimonies rather than be paid to give professional advisement.
Approximately 50% of incarcerated people suffer from Anti-social Personality Disorder. ASPD, unlike schizophrenia, is more likely to be undiagnosed for affected individuals. People with ASPD are manipulative and deceitful in their ways; in a group, they take advantage of people without offering anything in return (Nestor et al., 2018). However, if the symptoms are noted as early as during adolescence years, psychiatric intervention might help the person to contribute more in society. While people with schizophrenia do dangerous and criminal acts as a result of episodic attacks, people with ASPD are governed by impulses and mood swings. The whims and mood swings often get them in trouble with law enforcement. A person with ASPD having no control of his moods might decide to defy a police officer while compliance might have let him go free.
At the moment, society still has no answers on how best to manage mental health disorders. Education on psychosis and other mental illnesses should be the first point of intervention. Psychiatrists, sociologists, law enforcement and the criminal justice system, should also form new and improved policies on the parameters for insanity. The many instances of gun shooters with prior mental illnesses are enough evidence that mental illnesses should be investigated more exhaustively. People with insanity should be rehabilitated in asylums and psychiatric hospitals instead of being incarcerated.
References
Roche, T. (2002, March 18). “Andrea Yates: More to the Story.” Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,218445,00.html
Nestor, P. G., Woodhull, A., Newell, D., O'Donovan, K., Forte, M., Harding, S., & Pomplun, M. (2018). Clinical, social, and neuropsychological dimensions of the intersection of addiction and criminality. The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law , 46 (2), 179-186. doi: 10.29158/JAAPL.003745-18 .
