Neonaticide: an appropriate application for therapeutic jurisprudence?
Might therapeutic jurisprudence, a perspective that attempts to study interaction between the legal and mental health disciplines, be brought to bear effectively with respect to neonaticide, the murder of a newborn infant in the first 24 hours of its life? This is a crime that leads to sentencing that is now rarely therapeutic, rehabilitative, or corrective. An examination of the crime, its motives, and its perpetrators precedes a discussion of ways in which the mental health viewpoint in this matter might be brought to the active attention of the courts in order to promote sentencing that is appropriate to both the crime and the transgressor.
Schwartz
L L
LL
Department of Educational Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, Abington College, 1600 Woodland Road, Abington, PA 19001-3990, USA. lls2@psu.edu
Isser
N K
NK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007237:Infanticide / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D007298:Insanity Defense; D007603:Jurisprudence; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D009035:Mothers / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States