MODULE 2

NEO - CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

Possible Relationship Between Crime And Mental Disorder

1. Causal
2. Correlation
3. Coincidence

Study by Hafner & Boker, 1982

 All homicides and attempted homicides in West Germany 1955-64
 Mental disorder was associated with 5% of these
 The rate of mental disorder in the community was 3-5%
 Homicidal violence rate schizophrenia = 5/10,000 – Schizophrenics were 100x more
likely to commit suicide than homicide
 Homicidal violence rate affective = 6/100,000 – Affective disorders were 1000x more
likely to commit suicide than homicide

Specific Mental Disorder & Crime

 Psychopathic Disorder – there is an increased likelihood of other psychiatric symptoms
and disorders – homicide risk is increased 10x in someone with an antisocial personality
disorder
 Drug Dependence – Offences against property are associated with the need to pay for
drugs – Rates of drug abuse are increased among prisoners

Alcohol Dependence
Alcohol and crime are related in 3 important ways:
1. Alcohol intoxication may lead to charges related to public drunkenness or to driving
offences
2. Intoxication reduces inhibitions and is strongly associated with crimes of violence,
including murder
3. The neuropsychiatric complications of alcoholism may also be linked with crime.

Mental Retardation
Most offences committed by those in the borderline to mild ranges of learning disability
 The mentally retarded are more likely to be caught
 They may commit offences because they do not understand the implications of their
behaviour, or they are susceptible to exploitation by others
 Association with indecent exposure and arson

Depression
• Severe illness may lead to homicide
The depressed person is usually acting on delusions
Family member is usually the victim in altruistic homicides
The killer often commits suicide afterwards
 Sometimes associated with shoplifting

Bipolar Illness
• Offending is more common than in depression
• Manic patients may spend excessively, hire cars and fail to return them, or steal cars
• May be charged with fraud or false pretenses
 • Prone to irritability and aggression, though any resulting violence is seldom severe

Schizophrenia
• More likely to commit non-violent as well as violent crimes
• Minor offences more likely than serious offences
• Most criminal behaviour followed the onset of schizophrenia, although crime is frequently
a result of personality difficulties and social incompetence
• Risk of homicide is moderately increased in schizophrenia compared to the general
population

(1) Violence in schizophrenics may be associated with any of:

– great fear and loss of self-control associated with non-systematized delusions
– systematized paranoid delusions of persecution
– irresistible urges
– instructions from hallucinatory voices
– unaccountable frenzy
(2) Risk of violence is greatest where delusions are accompanied by strong affect, and when the
person has made efforts to try to confirm the truth of the delusions

CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY
– Evil intent mens rhea
– Evil deed actus rheus is equivalent to CRIME

McNaughten
Determines whether the person understand the nature and quality of his actions, and if
so, whether he knows that the action was wrong
The strictest test, and the standard criterion in most jurisdiction American Law Institute
(ALI) Model Penal Code
– Cognitive prong – determines whether the person appreciate the wrongfulness of his
behavior
– Volitional prong – determines whether the person is able to conform his conduct to the
requirements of the law. After the Hinckley case, most jurisdiction that used this test
dropped the volitional prong Durham Evaluates whether the person’s criminal behavior is
the “product” of a mental illness. The most lenient test, it has been abandoned in almost all
jurisdictions e.g., if he believed that man was attempting to kill him, and he kill that man, as
he thought, in self-defense, he would be exempt from punishment

Main Points of McNaughton’s Rules

1. Every man is to be presumed to be sane and to possess a sufficient degree of reason to
be responsible for his crimes, until the contrary be proved.
2. An insane person is punishable "if he knows" at the time of crime.
3. To establish a defense on insanity, the accused, by defect of reason or disease of mind,
is not in a position to know the nature and consequences.
4. The insane person must be considered in the same situation as to responsibility as if the
facts with respect to which the delusion exists were real.
5. It was the jury's role to decide whether the defendant was insane.
SANE
Everyman is to be presumed to be sane

INSANE
Defect of reason because disease of mind “TEST OF KNOWING” Not knowing nature or
consequence of the act RESPONSIBILITY Is as if the delusions were real JURY’S ROLE
Decide whether the defendant was insane.

Diminished Responsibility
• Charge of murder
o manslaughter
 Abnormality of mind as substantially impaired his mental responsibility for
his action

AUTOMATISM
• If a person has no control over an act, he cannot be held responsible for it – the
• Concept is similar to being ‘briefly insane’
• It is a legal term, and has no connection with epileptic automatisms
• Verdicts of not guilty have been returned when acts of violence were judged to have
been committed as ‘sane automatisms’

Sane Automatism
• Leads to a full acquittal • Seen to be due to an ‘external cause’ • Includes: –absent-
mindedness (in association with depression)

Insane Automatism
• Automatism thought to arise from a ‘disease of the mind’
o the appropriate defence is then insanity and the McNaghten rules apply
o Are due to an ‘internal cause’ because the conditions may reoccur
o Includes: – epileptic automatism – hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia – sleep-
walking – arteriosclerosis

Fitness to Plead
• Understand the nature of charge
• Understand the difference between a plea of guilty and not guilty
• Instruct counsel
• Follow evidence in presented in court • Challenge jurors

Treatment of Mentally
• Abnormal Offenders
In prisons – 1/3 of sentenced prisoners have a psychiatric disorder and 2% have a
psychosis (Gunn et al 1991)
In hospitals – For indeterminate length of stay or under ruler’s pleasure
In the community – When a non-custodial sentence is passed

Criminal Procedure Code Detention of offenders in psychiatric hospital

Person suspected of unsound mind to be examined
Person of unsound mind found not fit to stand trial
Person of unsound mind found not guilty by reason of insanity
NEUTRALIZATION AND DRIFT THEORY (David Cressey, Gresham Sykes, and David
Matza, 1957)
It is a subcultural value system that portrays the delinquent individual who subcribes
generally to the morals of society but who is able to justify his own delinquent behavior through
a process of “neutralization” that makes morally acceptable. It is a rational choice that explains
delinquents drift in and out of delinquency. The theory proposes the juvenile sense of
obligations to the law. This obligation is strain juvenile delinquents tend to drift into crime. This
strain is exemplary explain that delinquents have the same values, beliefs, and attitudes as
those of abiding – citizens.
The theory explains the guilt and negative self – concepts when engaging in
delinquency, why there is a need to neutralize guilt, and the five neutralization techniques that
allow them to do this.

Principal Basis for How Criminals Rationalize Actions

1. Denial of Responsibility. This is where the individual who committed the criminal act
(or accused of committing a criminal act).
2. Denial of Injury. This is where an individual who commits a criminal act (or is accused
of committing one) feels like the actions committed were victimless because no one was
physically hurt or the crime committed was committed against another criminal.
3. Denial of Victim. This goes back to circumstances that victims in this case are
considered outcasts by the general population so they deserved this type of treatment.
4. The Condemnation of the Condemners. This is when the individual who committed
the criminal act (or accused of committing a criminal act) sees the labeler as a deviant in
disguise, they are just out to get them, or by attacking them the wrongfulness of their
behavior is confused.
5. Appealing to Higher Loyalties. The requirements of larger society have to be pushed
to the side because of affiliation in smaller groups, who directly provide fidelity and
protection to the individual e.g. gangs. Criminals is applying these techniques is not
trying to justify their actions as “normal”, but trying to lessen the punishment that goes
along with whatever crime they have committed.

Subterranean Values (Core Principal of Neutralization)

The values exist along a conventional value that can be found in social settings. It was
reinforced by potential role models at schools, home by teachers, parents and in working
environment. When an adult uses any kind of bias (favoritism, gender, race, or grades) instead
of teaching the importance of learning a specific job. It is not necessary for a child to join a
gang; they will learn subterranean values through normal and conventional values taught in
traditional environments of modern society.

Drift Theory
This is a techniques of neutralization pertaining to adolescents to find release from
conventional restraints of society.

DELINQUENT SUBCULTURE THEORY (Cohen)

The theory assumes that crime is a consequence of the union of young people into so –
called subcultures in which deviant values and moral concepts dominate. Basic assumption is
that most juvenile criminals are members of delinquent subcultures. It is a subsystems or
antisystem of society with their own attitudes and norms that often contradict the moral concepts
of majority society. The union of young people into subcultures is the result of adjustment and
status problems of their members caused by the inequality of the existing class society.
According to Cohen Delinquent Subcultures are:
 Non – Utilitarian (the deviant actions are not committed on the basis of economic
rationality)
 Malicious (the purpose of delinquent acts is to annoy or even injure others)
 Negativistic (criminal acts are committed precisely because of their prohibition in order to
consciously reject conventional values)
 Versatile (in the sense of various delinquent behaviours that occur)
 Hedonistic (the focus is on the momentary pleasure)
 Resistant (to external pressure of conformity and loyal towards their own goup members,
values and norms)

Subcultural Theory is not an actual learning theory but a hybrid of learning, anomie and
other theories. It deals with special feature that deals with juvenile delinquency, but not criminal
behavior in general.

COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY (METACOGNITION)

Cognitive Learning Theory asks us to think about thinking and how thinking can be
influenced by internal factors (like how focused we are, or how distracted we've become) and
external factors (like whether the things we are learning are valued by our community or
whether we receive praise from others when we learn).
Cognitive Learning Theory comes from the field of psychology and has roots going back
to the beginning of Western philosophy. Important voices in this area include: Plato, Descartes,
William James, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget.
Cognitive Learning Theory is a well-developed area of educational theory, but here are
two ideas that will get people started thinking about these ideas:
 Social Cognitive Theory/Theories: This perspective argues that learning is inherently
social and happens in a social context. From this point of view, a learner's social
interactions with their peers, instructors, and others impact learning directly.
An instructor who works to provide a positive social experience with regular
opportunities for students to see that learning is valued and that others around them are
engaged in the process will be successful at encouraging learning.
Social Cognitive Theory focuses on both internal and external impacts on
learning while Behavioral Cognitive Theory explores the impact of internal forces alone.
They are not mutually exclusive ideas.

 Behavioral Cognitive Theory/Theories: This perspective argues that a person's

thoughts determine their actions and feelings, and ultimately their ability to learn and
their enjoyment of learning.
For example, students who believe they "don't like to read" will find reading more
difficult, and students who believe they are "good at art" will try harder and enjoy art
more.

Learning activities that align with Cognitive Learning Theory include:

 Asking students to journal: Journaling leverages internal interests and motivations.
Journaling also provides a "safe space" to take risks without the "threat' of external
judgement.
 Providing opportunities for students to teach and learn from each other: Peer-to-
peer interaction provides a social context that illustrates that learning and knowing are
valued in the group.
 Modeling thinking through problems in front of others: It can be both socially and
personally (externally and internally) challenging to admit to not knowing or
understanding something quickly. When instructors/teachers/trainers model working
through problems/questions in front of learners, it can help to normalize the fact that
learning and understanding takes time and is a process. Over time, having other
learners in the group also have the opportunity to work through problems in front of
others will strengthen the social norm that learning is a process and does not need to
happen quickly or automatically.