Running head: Insane About Insanity

Draft for Research Essay

Insane About Insanity

Danielle Zachary

University of Central Florida

Running head: Insane About Insanity

Abstract

DO THE ABSTRACT AFTER YOU FINISH YOUR PAPER

Keywords: Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, insanity defense, mentally insane, non-

compos mentis, insanity plea

Running head: Insane About Insanity

Insane About Insanity

Introduction

Mental health is a very serious issue in our society in this modern era. People throughout

history have been seeking treatment for these mental conditions. In the early eras, people

believed that mental illness was a result of the supernatural affecting the human condition. In

prehistoric time, people would use trephination, or carving a hole in the skull to relieve the

human of evil spirits. This was obviously incorrect, but paved way for researching illness that

had no physical symptoms. Greek physician Hippocrates went against belief of the supernatural

in medical cases and theorized that there were four essential bodily fluids: blood, yellow bile,

black bile, and phlegm. He theorized that these bodily fluids held the key for mental illness and

physical illness. He also determined that mental illness can fall into four different categories:

epilepsy, mania, melancholia, and brain fever. These early models of mental illness are still used

in the modern time, but more advanced and researched. Later on in history, people were treating

mental illness in asylums to hold and confine the ill. Now in the modern era, mental illness is

treated using different psychological techniques. Individuals can use medicine to help with

symptoms and use talk therapy to ease their nerves.

Although mental illness is being treated by professionals, people still do not take it

serious enough. There are certain individuals in our society that stray from the norms, even the

norms of mental illness. These are people who, because of their illness, commit illegal acts.

There are many individuals with mental illnesses that commit crimes and end up in jail or even

face the death penalty. There is a way for the mentally ill individual to avoid jail and get the

treatment that they need. If an individual were to say that, during the time of the crime that they

were mentally incompetent, or non-compos mentis, they could plea insanity. By pleading
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insanity, they would end up in a mental institution and would be receiving treatment with the

goal of mental rehabilitation. For this research essay, the individuals being focused on are

cultists, sexual offenders, and serial killers. The research will go in detail as to whether the

insanity plea differs among them. There will also be a look into gender and how it affects the

insanity plea.

Method

When researching a topic as broad as insanity, you must first learn the definition and then

branch out from there. Insanity is a state where the individual is mentally ill and/or cannot

determine reality from delusion. When a person commits a crime and at the time of the crime is

mentally ill, they can invoke the insanity defense. “When the insanity defense is invoked, or

when one pleads guilty but mentally ill, it is the burden of the defense to show that at the time of

the crime, the defendant was unable to know right from wrong, that the defendant was unable to

resist an impulse, or that the defendant’s actions were a product of a mental defect or disease.”

(Prerost 2017). The insanity defense allows mentally ill people a chance at rehabilitation because

if the plea goes through, they can end up at a mental institution that can get them the help they

need.

For researching about the insanity defense, I used scholarly articles that I found on the

internet. Using UCF Libraries Search Databases and Google Scholar, I was able to quickly and

successfully research everything I needed about insanity and how it affects certain individuals.

Initially I did not account for gender to have a role in the insanity defense. It was only after I

realized that people viewed mentally ill female criminals differently from mentally ill male

criminals that I started to consider how important gender was in this topic.

Results
Running head: Insane About Insanity

My research question was initially brought about because of my major. I am a

psychology major at UCF, so when everyone was choosing topics, I knew mine was going to

deal with psychology. I finally came to the question of how the Insanity plea differs among

cultists, serial killers, and sexual offenders and also how gender affects the plea overall. There

are three perspective that I am working with during this research. My first perspective is cultists,

male and female. My second perspective is sexual offenders, only male. My third and final

perspective are serial killers, male and female. Since there are more male sexual offenders than

female, I will be focusing more on the male ones.

Cultists

While it may seem far-fetched and something out of a movie, cults, while rare, are real

and in our society. In current news, a cult called NXIVM has made headlines for its role in

sexual slavery of women and abuse. This essay will be focusing more on earlier cults, mainly in

the late 20th century. A cult is a group of people, usually radical, that unite together from a

similar belief or goal. They can be swayed to joining by a leader, who is usually well spoken

with words and charismatic. “…stated that some cults may resemble a case of “mass” shared

psychotic disorder (a diagnosis in DSM-IV-TR5 that was eliminated in DSM-56 ), raising the

question of where cult belief ends and delusion begins.” (Holoyda & Newman 2016). This raises

the question of insanity among certain cultists.

Certain beliefs in a cult can be exaggerated and outrageous to the point where one

questions whether it is a delusion. Sometimes an individual will commit an act of violence in the

name of a cult, with the idea of it following a belief or guidance. This can be due to the

charismatic leader telling them what to do or how to act. This is when the plea for not guilty by

reason of insanity (NGRI) can be called into question if they ask for it. An example of something
Running head: Insane About Insanity

similar to this is the Manson Family Cult in the late 1960s. They were a group of people

following the orders of their charismatic leader Charles Manson. He had several members

murder famous actress Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969. This created notoriety for the

cult. Was Charles Manson guilty of murder when he didn’t do any of the physical killing? The

short answer is yes. Both he and his followers who were involved in the crime were held

accountable.

Sexual Offenders

Many people have heard of the term sex offender. Whenever the word pops up they

immediately think of someone who is an awful human being who likes to harm others and only

cares about themselves. While this may be true about some sexual offenders, for others this is a

result of them not being able to control their impulses. Some people who are sexual offenders

have a mental illness and have issues of suppressing their urges. While there is no excuse for

committing these acts, there can be help to those who look for it, as is the case for NGRI. “There

is a substantial body of research indicating that sexual offenders experience high rates of

psychiatric disorders including mood disorders, substance use disorders, and paraphilic

disorders.” (Holoyda, Newman, & McDermott 2017). These mental disorders listed can attribute

to the corrupt mental state the individual is while committing the acts.

Serial Killers

All throughout the media and history you can see people romanticizing and fictionalizing

serial killers. From Jack the Ripper to the Zodiac Killer, history has been riddled with serial

killers. To become a serial killer, one has to murder three or more people in the span of more

than a month’s time. People are searching to find a reason why these people commit these

graphic and horrific acts of violence. Some of them can’t control their urge to murder and others
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do it because they feel like it. Many serial killers are diagnosed with Antisocial Personality

Disorder. This personality disorder, AKA sociopathy, is a condition where the individual has no

regard for the right or wrong in life and has no remorse for things. This makes it easier for the

individual to kill someone without guilt. This also means that certain serial killers are mentally

ill. This allows them to use the insanity defense, while extremely hard to do so. Famous serial

killer Jeffrey Dahmer plead insane in court. He was found guilty of murder and sent to prison,

where he was infamously killed by a fellow inmate. This shows that it is hard for someone to

plead insane, no matter how insane they are.

GENDER

MORE ON GENDER WHEN I RESEARCH IT MORE

ANALYIS

DISCUSSION
Running head: Insane About Insanity

References

1. Holoyda, B. J., McDermott, B. E., & Newman, W. J. (2018). Insane Sex Offenders:
Psychiatric and Legal Characteristics of Sexual Offenders Found Not Guilty by Reason
of Insanity. Journal Of Forensic Sciences, 63(4), 1207–1214.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.13707.
2. Holoyda, B., & Newman, W. (2016). Between belief and delusion: Cult members and the
Insanity Plea. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
Online, 44(1), 53-62.
https://login.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/login?auth=shibb&url=https://search.ebscohost.com/log
in.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2016-22584-
008&cpidlogin.asp?custid=current&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
3. Prerost, F. J. (2017). Insanity defense. Salem Press Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
https://login.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/login?auth=shibb&url=https://search.ebscohost.com/log
in.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=95342910&site=eds-live&scope=site.