Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Cognition & cognitive psychology
|
Buy Now
Mentally Disordered Offenders - Perspectives from Law and Social Science (Paperback, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1983)
Loot Price: R4,493
Discovery Miles 44 930
|
|
Mentally Disordered Offenders - Perspectives from Law and Social Science (Paperback, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1983)
Series: Perspectives in Law & Psychology, 6
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
|
In its narrowest sense, "mentally disordered offender" refers to
the approximately twenty thousand persons per year in the United
States who are institutionalized as not guilty by reason of
insanity, incompetent to stand trial, and mentally disordered sex
offenders, as well as those prisoners transferred to mental
hospitals. The real importance of mentally disordered offenders,
however, may not lie in this figure. Rather, it may reside in the
symbolic role that mentally disordered offenders play for the rest
of the legal system. The 3,140 persons residing in state
institutions on an average day in 1978 as not guilty by reason of
insanity (see Chapter 4), for example, are surely worthy of concern
in their own right. But they represent only 1% of the 307,276
persons residing in state and federal prisons in the same period
(U. S. Dept. of Justice, 1981). From a purely numeric point of
view, the insanity defense truly is "much ado about little"
(Pasewark & Pasewark, 1982). The central importance of
understanding these persons, however, is that they serve a symbolic
function in justifying the imprisonment of the other 99%. The
insanity defense, as Stone (1975) has noted, is "the exception that
proves the rule. " By exculpating a relatively few people from
being criminally responsible for their behavior, the law inculpates
all other law violators as liable for social sanction.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.