INSANITY AND CRIMINAL OFFENDERS. SOME COMMENTS  ON THE REPORT OF GOVERNOR'S SPECIAL COMMISSIONS ON INSANITY AND CRIMINAL  OFFENDERS.
The definition proposed by the Commissions on Insanity and Criminal Offenders for determining criminal responsibility will not resolve the issue between offenders who are considered blameworthy and regarded as criminals and those who are not. No formula is satisfactory for differentiating responsibility and irresponsibility. Determinism, which is the fundamental tenet of all science, is violated by the assumption that an individual can wilfully elect to commit an act which, in fact, is the result of causal antecedents. This concept is in conflict with the basic premise of criminal law that an individual is considered criminally responsible unless it can be proved to the contrary. Since it is unlikely that any proposal to abolish the concept of criminal responsibility would be even considered, it is suggested that no definition be used at all. Laws similar to those for the disposition of the mentally ill could be enacted, with emphasis not on the concept of criminal responsibility and moral blameworthiness but on the offender's dangerousness to others, the disposition then being planned to fit the offender rather than the offense.
D002140:California; D003416:Criminal Law; D057237:Criminals; D003617:Dangerous Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007603:Jurisprudence; D001523:Mental Disorders; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders; D009014:Morals; D011618:Psychotic Disorders
CALIFORNIA; JURISPRUDENCE; MENTAL DISORDERS