Description
Forensic Mental Health: The Insanity Defense
Assignment Instructions
From recent news publications, select two individuals with mental health issues who were involved in a forensic mental health situation, or who could have been involved given the circumstances surrounding the incident. Citing information from news articles and your readings for this unit, write a paper in which you complete the following for each case:
·Describe an appropriate claim for each situation found in the news articles (for example, competency to stand trial, insanity).
·Describe the clues from the news articles that might indicate a mental impairment in both cases.
·Describe how a forensic evaluator would determine whether the legal criteria for an insanity defense were met in both cases, using information from the unit readings.
·Describe the relationship between mental health and the legal system, using your course readings and the news articles.
·Describe the ethical concerns involved in both cases in the news articles.
·Write coherently to support a central idea with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a psychology professional.
·Use APA style and formatting.
·Length: 3 double-spaced, typed pages.
·Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
Explanation & Answer
Here is the paper you requested. Please close the question and have a good day!
INSANITY DEFENSE
1
Insanity a factor in recent violent crimes
Pleading insanity is a very common way for defense lawyers to save their clients from longer
jail sentences and even the death penalty. Proving that their client is insane is usually a major challenge
and they need the testimony of psychiatrists, first hand observations from witnesses and legal
documentation of a history of mental illness to even have a chance at proving their client was insane at
the time of the crime. Recently, there have been several cases in the media involving a perpetrator
whose sanity was in question. It is important to distinguish whether the person at fault for the crime
was actually insane at the time of the incident or if the defense is just using the plea as a way to get
their client to avoid the responsibility for what they did. This paper will examine two such cases
reported in the news recently to bring to light this controversial issue.
The recent shooting of Louisiana Representative Steve Scalise and others while practicing for a
baseball game has brought the issue of insanity and crime to light again. The shooter was a man named
James T. Hodgkinson who was never diagnosed as insane by a psychiatrist but from the information in
the news article I researched, all indications are that the man definitely had a problem with mental
illness. Whether it would have been able to be proved in court is doub...
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