Diminished responsibility--a psychiatric viewpoint.
Diminished responsibility is based on the notion that mental disorder may make a person only partially accountable for his act in the killing of another person. For this plea to succeed it has to be shown that an accused has to be suffering from such an abnormality of mind that his responsibility for the action is substantially diminished. As these concepts of abnormality of mind and criminal responsibility do not fit easily into psychiatric classification of mental disorders, nine senior psychiatrists who regularly attend court as expert witnesses were surveyed and their viewpoints about mental abnormality and diminished responsibility were elected.
Kok
L P
LP
Department of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore.
Cheang
M
M
Chee
K T
KT
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005104:Expert Testimony; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D007298:Insanity Defense; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000145:classification*; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000145:classification; D012846:Singapore