The paper is an analytical study which revolves around Psychopathic offenders,
Psychopathic offenders are notoriously difficult to treat, as they are generally
resistant to change and are at a high risk of programme failure and tendency of
a convicted criminal to reoffend.
The paper deals with the most often question
asked by criminal investigators - "whether a psychopath is criminally
accountable?", "Whether a psychopath can claim to be mentally ill in order to
avoid following the standard method?" Further it deals with the evidences,
difficulties, and debates in psychopathic offender therapy.
The paper also deals
with the Insanity Defense in various forms and how Psychopaths are criminally
liable notwithstanding their lack of moral culpability. For better understanding
of the concept the paper also mentions about the Recent Cases related to
psychopath offenders and also discusses about Management of Psychopathic
Offenders and Different Versions of Insanity Defense.
Introduction
There has long been a discussion concerning whether or not individuals may be
evil.
They certainly can: if they commit violent crimes! They are divided into three
non-evil groups.
- Sick, deranged, or mentally ill - not "bad"
- Neglect and abuse victims (physical or sexual)
- Convinced that their negative act isn't actually bad, but rather
beneficial.[1]
The individual, who respond to criminal behavior not because they lack suitable
instructions but, because they like it. They are careless about the damage they
cause to others. Those who oppose the concept of evil agency claim that
psychopaths are victims of neurological abnormalities, external causes, or
erroneous views.[2]
The fight between good and evil, on the other hand, has
become a rudimentary feature in criminal law. On the one hand, many judges,
lawyers, legislators, and academics see psychopaths as evil since they commit
crimes frequently, show no remorse for their victims, are thought to be
incurable, and are thus prone to repeating similar or bigger crimes.
Psychopaths are frequently treated as aggravating factors in criminal law,
warranting harsher penalty. On the other hand, there is a compelling argument
that psychopaths constitute a mitigating, if not exculpatory, element. They are
usually doomed to a life of emotional deprivation, a life devoid of stimulating
human relationships, and occupational failure.
Moral and criminal conundrum of judging psychopaths[3]
There are two possible assumptions: criminal punishment necessitates moral
responsibility directly, or criminal punishment necessitates criminal
responsibility, which necessitates moral responsibility.
The reason that just criminal punishment does not necessitate moral
responsibility is that criminal law is intended to be used as a last resort
against individuals who are not sufficiently motivated by morality and respect
for the law to obey it.
Difference Between Psychopathy and Anti-Social Personality Disorder? (ASPD)[4]
In the past, there was no way to tell the difference between psychopathy and
ASPD. These names are still used interchangeably today. However, ASPD and
psychopathy are not the same in two respects. To begin with, ASPD does not need
a lack of empathy. Second, although the ASPD diagnostic criteria are mostly
behavioral in nature, the psychopathy diagnostic criteria are both behavioral
and psychological in [5]nature.
Overview of Psychopathy:
As indicated by its prominence in myth and literature throughout history,
psychopathy has always been a part of human civilization. Adolf Guggenbuhl-Craig
dubbed them "emptied souls." One of Aristotle's pupils, Theophrastus, may have
been the first to mention them, referring to them as "the unscrupulous." These
are the people who lack the common links that bind us all together, as well as
the constraints that those bonds impose. They are people who lack empathy and
compassion, to put it frankly.
Psychopaths have also been discovered in pre-industrial civilizations, showing
that they are not a modern-day cultural invention, but have existed from our
species' inception.
There are two categories of psychopathy
Psychopathy appears as a symptom of underlying problems that may be traced back
to their basic reasons when psychological motivation is easy to discern. When
the causes of the ailment are recognized and eliminated, as many have been, the
illness has a strong chance of being healed.
This is secondary psychopathy, or
symptomatic psychopathy.
On the other hand, no matter how hard or in-depth one studies a psychopath's
case, it is very impossible to identify any specific psychogenesis for his
behaviour. Because of who he has always been and what he has always done, he is
who he is and does what he does. His emotions are so deeply ingrained in him
that they appear to have been present since birth. This is the most basic form
of idiopathic psychopathy[6].
Psychopathy is measured using the following criteria:
Motivation vs. behavior.
Psychopathy has been defined as a huge group of people who share only one trait,
namely antisocial behavior, which can be further divided into types based on
motive. The entire subject may be addressed with easily if we divide psychopathy
into two groups, primary and secondary. If a person is determined to be of
secondary kinds, there is a good chance that they can be treated. All that is
required is the discovery of the underlying motivation.
The cause may not be as
deep in some cases, but it may be so deeply embedded in others that it is
difficult to get to and requires treatment. The inability to distinguish between
pure or essential psychopathy and secondary psychopathy, as opposed to and
distinct from the secondary variety, has resulted in a clinical therapeutic
stalemate.[7]
Giving the idiopathic kind of psychopathy a restricted term of several years can
only mean one thing: after the sentence expires, he will be completely
unaffected by the experience, and will happily go about his business, only to
run afoul of the law once more. Treating the symptomatic type in the same way as
the idiopathic type, on the other hand, will inevitably result in failure, as
punishment will only worsen the issue.
Abnormal Sexuality and Psychopathy
Psychopaths, on the one hand, and homosexuals and sex perverts, on the other,
have nothing in common. Because homosexuality, like the rest of descriptive
psychiatry, is seen as antisocial behaviour, they are frequently lumped
together. Many psychopaths are unable to adjust to regular sexual situations.
Simply said, psychopaths do not make good sex adjustments, but not all people
who do make poor sex adjustments are psychopaths[8].
However, one note must be
made in relation to psychopaths' love relationships, or any interpersonal
relationships between them and the other sex. [9]They appear to be completely
incapable of feeling connected or empathic. They do not appreciate what is done
to them, and they are unlikely to repay what has been done for them with
gratitude. They are the polar opposite of neurotics in this regard, and they are
essentially alone among humans.
Insanity As A Defence:
The Insanity Defense is based on the following assumptions: T[10]he insanity
defence is intended to protect those who are legally mad from being prosecuted.
The insanity defence is based on three assumptions:
- Insane people are not morally accountable for their conduct.
- Criminal accountability is predicated on moral responsibility.
Most academics and participants in the criminal justice system subscribe to this
paradigm for two reasons. For starters, moral responsibility is regarded to be
required for criminal responsibility, as the latter is a subset of the former,
namely moral responsibility for a specific criminal conduct. Second, assume that
person is not morally liable for the act in question. [11]Under any case,
punishing that person becomes unjust.
- For just criminal punishment, criminal responsibility is required.
Criminal responsibility is required for criminal punishment for two reasons:
justice and deterrent. Punishing someone who isn't criminally accountable
for their crimes would be unjust and ineffective in deterring recidivists
and others in similar situations from repeating the same or similar
actions.[12]
Insanity Defense in various forms
The M'Naghten Rule, issued by a British Court in 1843, was the earliest
iteration of the insanity defence. According to the rule, a person is legally
insane and thus not guilty of the offence for which he is charged if he was "labouring
under such a loss of reason" at the time of the crime. He suffered from a mental
illness that caused him to be unaware of the kind and quality of the act he was
performing, or if he was aware of it, he was unaware of the repercussions.
So, according to the M'Naghten Rule, a person is considered insane and not
criminally responsible if he had a mental disorder at the time of the alleged
crime, and his mental disorder caused him to suffer from severe ignorance, which
took one of two forms: ignorance of what he was doing or ignorance of the fact
that what he was doing was wrong. This type of insanity defence is used in a lot
of places. Many others refer to the 'irresistible impulse' defence as an
insanity defence. As a result, defendants are considered legally ill and so not
criminally accountable or punishable for their criminal behaviour.
In its Model Penal Code of 1962, the American Law Institute presented an
alternative kind of insanity defence (MPC). 'A person is not accountable for
criminal activity if he lacks substantial capacity either to perceive the
criminality of his conduct or to conform his action to the requirements of law
at the time of such conduct due to a mental disorder or defect.' The MPC rule
differs from the M'Naghten rule in three ways.[13]
It transforms a lack of' substantial capacity to appreciate' into an inability
to know. The latter term implies that a broader variety of persons could be
considered mad, including not just those who can't know but also those who have
great trouble knowing, as well as those who are doing anything other than
knowing.
It separates the object of one's inability from the nature of one's conduct.
While the M'Naghten rule says that people are mad if they are unable to
understand the nature or wrongfulness of their actions, the MPC suggests that
people are insane if they are unable to recognise "the illegality of their
actions."
It has a mellowed out form of irresistible urge. While the irresistible desire
necessitates a complete absence of control over one's behaviour, the MPC
definition of volitional insanity just necessitates a "lack of considerable
competence to conform one's behaviour to the standards of law."
The third type of insanity defence is the 'Durham' rule, often known as the
'Product' rule. New Hampshire is the only state that has remained a subscriber.
As established in the Durham case, an accused is not criminally liable if his
unlawful behaviour was caused by a mental illness or defect.
This version of the
insanity defence is commonly ignored because it violates the widely accepted
assumption that mental illness is compatible with moral responsibility and, as a
result, criminal liability. The Durham rule states that a person suffering from
mental illness is not morally accountable for his or her actions as a result of
the disease. We generally reject this proposition since mental illness and moral
responsibility are both considered continuum ideas.
Four Reasons Psychopaths Are Mentally Ill
People argue that substantial comprehension of the moral wrongfulness of one's
act is not required for criminal accountability for two reasons. To begin with,
not all criminal law offences are morally reprehensible. Offenses of malum
prohibitum, rather than malum in se, legislation are arguably no more morally
reprehensible than traffic violations.
Second, understanding the moral
importance of the criminal law is not required. An natural incapacity to empathise with the victim, an inability to perceive the victim's predicament
from the victim's own perspective, is the underlying cause of psychopaths' moral
blindness. They just cannot comprehend what we mean when we stress that this
harsh treatment is simply wrong since they lack a conscience to make them feel
terrible about treating others badly.[14]
The universally applicable arguments simply suggest that no one "in their right
mind" would conduct what psychopaths do. Many torturers and killers are not mad.
People who torture and kill because they have been brainwashed, trained,
terrorised, or abused � these agents have lost only their compassion, not their
sanity. People who can lose compassion for others while still understanding the
nature of their actions, their moral and legal status, and their control.
People
who lack compassion for others, on the other hand, cannot be called to have
compassion. A person like this can't tell the difference between reality and
fiction. This debate has been couched in terms of logic by some researchers. As
a result, psychopaths are illogical in their core. Because inherent
irrationality leads to insanity, psychopaths who lack the bare minimum of moral
competence are also mad.
Psychopathy is a 'disease of the mind' or a 'fault of reason.' Given that
psychopathy tends to rob a person of crucial qualities, such as the ability to
care for others and the ability to regulate one's impulses, Most courts still
refuse to acknowledge that psychopaths are insane.
Defendants are legally insane and hence not criminally accountable or punishable
for their otherwise unlawful conduct if a mental defect or disorder made it
impossible for them to regulate their actions, as determined by the M'Naghten
test.
Mens Rea, Psychopathy, and Insanity Defense[15]
Psychoapths, in the majority of cases, are not helped by the insanity defence.
The relationship between mens rea and will is not distorted by psychopathy. As a
result, there is no need to change this link, and thus no need for an insanity
defence to do so. If the defendant's callousness indicates ill intent, using an
insanity defence to account for that callousness would provide no essential
adjustment for determining ill will from mens rea. Instead, it would eliminate
the penalties that should result from a wicked intent.
Psychopaths are not allowed to claim insanity under the usual norm. This
criterion fits nicely with the defense's understanding of the defense as an
adjustment to avoid evaluating mens rea by misjudging the will. The psychopath's
mental disorder most likely influences his morals rather than his perception of
reality. If this is the case, his mens rea accurately indicates an immoral will,
and hence no correction is required.
Recent Cases:
Somnath Parida[16], a 71-year-old former army doctor from Bhubaneswar, is
accused of murdering his wife, chopping her body into 300 pieces, and dumping
them in chemicals for a length of time. At his home, they discovered the body
parts in 22 steel containers in two crates, as well as sharp-edged weapons and
surgical instruments used in the body's cutting. Despite the fact that sources
claim he was not a hothead, no one believes he could commit such a thing. The
case is still in the court system.
Serial Murders in Noida[17]:
The Nithari Kand in Noida, which took place in the home of a businessman
Mohinder Singh Pandher in India in 2005 and 2006, was filmed in the residence of
a businessman Mohinder Singh Pandher. Surender Kohli, a servant, has been
sentenced to death.
There have been numerous incidents where psychopaths have been sentenced to
death and have been labelled as serial killers.
Psychopaths Confused With Other Sexual Crimes
It should be emphasized that rape, incest, serial murders, and other sexually
violent crimes are frequently confused with psychopathy. They also have a lot of
differences amongst them. They cannot be evaluated similarly for trials and
rulings. Each of the crimes described has a unique and individual mens rea. For
crimes committed by psychopaths due to their illness, there is absolutely no
motive.
Serial killers can be psychopaths, but not all serial killers are psychopaths.
Technically speaking, they are distinct from one another. Even medical
professionals can become perplexed by the disease since some of the patterns of
death are so similar. It is mixed up with other mentally ill individuals,
criminals, serial murders, and offenders who engage in incest. In reality, the
former could have occurred for a variety of reasons, including obsession,
retaliation, pleasure, fun, lust, and psychopathy.
Cases like incest, rape,
child molestation, sodomy, and serial killing are frequently confused with psychopathy. It is crucial to conduct an investigation in order to address the
ambiguity surrounding psychopathic behaviour. This will aid in making a
distinction between psychopathy and other types of crime, such as violent and
sexual crimes. The cause of crime in the former case is not due to disease,
whereas it is in the latter case.[18]
There is no ambiguity in the vocabulary used to describe sexual criminals,
violent criminals, rapists, incest cases, serial killers, sociopaths, and
psychopaths in the United Kingdom and the United States; a distinct line has
been made between each of these classifications. As a result, the treatment and
penalties are based on the illness. In India's criminal justice system, this is
a crucial and urgent issue. Changes must be made to the system in order to treat
and judge psychopaths and all other mentally ill criminals in accordance with
their illness rather than the crime they have committed[19].
Psychopaths' Place in the Moral World [20]
Even if psychopathy provides grounds for lessened accountability or complete
excuse, psychopaths nonetheless constitute a significant threat to the wellbeing
of others, which is one of society's major problems. As a result, reducing the
period of time a psychopath is removed from society is frequently regarded as a
highly undesirable situation. The question then arises whether society can
justify institutionalizing or otherwise isolating psychopaths from the broader
population.
The topic of how to deal with the consequences of releasing
psychopaths into society might be viewed as a distributive justice issue. There
is a discernible advantage to the psychopath and a burden to society in his
release, and there is a discernible benefit to the psychopath and a burden to
society in his detention. As a result, the option to release the psychopath can
be weighed against the distribution of advantages and burdens. This approach
appears to lead to the problem being treated as a utilitarian issue.
Criticisms:
If given the same instructions on which to formulate moral responsibilities as
an ordinary moral agent, psychopathy presents a type of agent who is unlikely to
reach the same conclusions as an ordinary moral agent. The problem is twofold:
impaired social learning appears to prevent psychopaths from relying on moral
authorities in order to engage in appropriate behaviour, and the specific
impairments that psychopathy presents appear to undermine the philosophical
credibility of treating such people as ordinary moral agents.[21]
Conclusion
Any attempt to use psychopathy as a mitigating factor of guilt and punishment
for wrongdoing needs to achieve a balance between upholding human agency,
holding people accountable for their actions, and safeguarding the public. There
are so many laws which help and give equal protection to the persons with mental
disabilities.
In the case of psychopathy, this provides a unique difficulty
because it might raise the likelihood of societal harm and self-injury. However,
the essence of psychopathy appears to involve a kind of agency that differs
significantly from that of a typically functioning adult, making it difficult to
establish a decision that stated transgression bears full punishment and
culpability.
End-Notes:
- Ken Levy, Dangerous Psychopaths: Criminally Responsible But Not Morally Responsible, Subject to Criminal Punishment and to Preventive Detention,
https://www.academia.edu/21167042/Dangerous_Psychopaths_Criminally_Responsible_But_Not_Morally_Responsible_Subject_to_Criminal_Punishment_and_to_Preventive_Detention (9th NOVEMBER, 2022, 6:44PM).
- ScienceDirect, Mark E. Olver, Psychopathy and Criminal Behavior, 22 - Treatment of psychopathic offenders: A review of research, past, and current practice, 25th November 2022, 6:00PM,
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128114193000017.
- National Library Of Medicine, N. F. Link, S. E. Scherer, P. N. Byrne, Moral judgment and moral conduct in the psychopath, (07th December 2022, 6:30PM),
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/589549/.
- Seth Meyers Psy.D., Psychology Today, Difference Between the Psychopath and So-Called Sociopath, (28th November 2022, 7:30PM),
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/insight-is-2020/201812/difference-between-the-psychopath-and-so-called-sociopath.
- By Paul Babiak, M.S., Ph.D.; Jorge Folino, M.D., Ph.D.; Jeffrey Hancock, Ph.D.; Robert D. Hare, Ph.D.; Matthew Logan, Ph.D., M.Ed.; Elizabeth Leon Mayer, Ph.D.; J. Reid Meloy, Ph.D.; Helin� H�kk�nen-Nyholm, Ph.D.; Mary Ellen O'Toole, Ph.D.; Anthony Pinizzotto, Ph.D.; Stephen Porter, Ph.D.; Sharon Smith, Ph.D.; and Michael Woodworth, Ph.D., Psychopathy - An Important Forensic Concept for the 21st Century, (25TH November 2022, 7:00PM),
https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/psychopathy-an-important-forensic-concept-for-the-21st-century.
- Sarah Coyne and David A. Nelson, Mean on the screen: Psychopathy, relationship aggression, and aggression in the media, ResearchGate, (9th NOVEMBER, 2022, 6:30PM),
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221990281_Mean_on_the_screen_Psychopathy_relationship_aggression_and_aggression_in_the_media.
- Magaonkar Revati, I Pleader, How to deal with a psychopathic offender � legal provisions in India and other countries, 10th November, 2022, 6:00PM,
https://blog.ipleaders.in/deal-psychopathic-offender-legal-provisions-india-countries/.
- Nanyang Technological University June 1, 2022, Scientists Have Established a Key Biological Difference Between Psychopaths and Normal People, (02TH December, 2022, 6:23PM),
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-have-established-a-key-biological-difference-between-psychopaths-and-normal-people/.
- Case studies in the Psychopathology of crime, Vol II, Case 8, "Rape", Medical Science Press, 1944,
https://search.yahoo.com/search? (8TH NOVEMBER, 2022, 7:00PM).
- Khushi Agrawal, IPleader, Insanity as a defense under the Indian Penal Code, (28th November 2022, 4:00PM),
https://blog.ipleaders.in/insanity-defence-indian-penal-code/.
- Purdue University, Rethinking Rational by John Matthew, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/dissertations/AAI3099791/ (9th NOVEMBER 2022, 8:30 PM).
- Falakdipti, Legal Service India, Psychopathic Criminals: Punishment or Therapy?, (25TTH November 2022, 8:00pm),
https://www.legalserviceindia.com/legal/article-6348-psychopathic-criminals-punishment-or-therapy-.html.
- History of Forensic Psychology, (25TH December, 2022, 6:30 PM),
https://forensicpsychology.umwblogs.org/the-history-of-the-insanity-defense/mnaghten-rules/.
- National Library of Medicine, Kent A. Kiehl and Morris B. Hoffman, THE CRIMINAL PSYCHOPATH: HISTORY, NEUROSCIENCE, TREATMENT, AND ECONOMICS, (23rd November 2022, 6:00PM),
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4059069/.
- Stabbing in the dark: English Law relating to Psychopathy, Peter Bartlett, pp25-28.,
https://philpapers.org/rec/KEEIPT-2 (7TH NOVEMBER 2022, 6:45PM).
- Somnath Sahu versus State of Orissa, O.J.C. 205 of 1963
- Surendra Koli vs State Of U.P. Ors on 15 February, 2011
- Mark E. Olver, Treatment of psychopathic offenders: Evidence, issues, and controversies, 23rd November, 2022, 6:20PM,
https://www.journalcswb.ca/index.php/cswb/article/view/25/56.
- INSIDERS, The real differences between psychopaths and sociopaths
and why you can't be officially diagnosed as either, (9TH December,
2022, 5:00AM), https://www.insider.com/guides/health/mental-health/sociopath-vs-psychopath
-
Daniel Jeffries, The Secret World of Psychopaths: Why Psychopaths Have
Always Ruled the World and Always Will, (25TH November, 2022, 6:25PM),
https://medium.com/@dan.jeffries/the-secret-world-of-psychopaths-why-psychopaths-have-always-ruled-the-world-and-always-will-ab067dc248ca
- UnderCurrent, philosophical perspective on topic of interest, Psychopaths
and Morality: Where do they fit?, (27th November, 2022, 6:00PM), http://undercurrentphilosophy.com/medium/psychopaths-and-morality-where-do-they-fit/
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