Monday, April 23, 2012

Forensic Psychiatry News Review - 8:48 AM 4/23/2012 - Mike Nova's starred items

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Forensic Psychiatry News Review - 8:48 AM 4/23/2012 - Mike Nova's starred items

 

via prison psychiatry - Google Blog Search by john on 2/26/12
On entry to prison, almost one-fifth of prison entrants were referred to the prison mental health services for observation and further assessment. Young people in juvenile detention facilities also have high rates of mental illness ...

via prison psychiatry - Google News on 4/20/12

A Decent Solution to Chronic Criminality: How to Alter Kids' Course
Patch.com
Many teen offenders then move into adult prisons and come out with a “Ph.D. in criminology” and no help re-entering society in a healthy manner. So says San Diego photojournalist and urban anthropologist Susan Madden Lankford, author of a trilogy of ...

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via prison psychiatry - Google News on 4/19/12

New York Times
A Spate of Teenage Suicides Alarms Russians
New York Times
Experts blame alcoholism, family dysfunction and other kinds of fallout from the Soviet Union's collapse, as well as the absence of a mental health structure and social support networks to help troubled young people. They also agree with Mr. Medvedev ...

and more »

via prison psychiatry - Google News on 4/19/12

7Online.com
Long Island doctor accused of raping patient
7Online.com
by FRANK ELTMAN SANDS PONT -- A psychiatrist who had his medical license suspended, then revoked, more than a decade ago because of misconduct allegations is accused of raping a woman he was treating for depression inside his Long Island office, ...

and more »

via prison psychiatry - Google News on 4/19/12

NY police arrest psychiatrist on charges he raped a female patient | The Republic
The Republic
FRANK ELTMAN AP MINEOLA, NY — A psychiatrist who had his medical license suspended, then revoked, more than a decade ago because of misconduct allegations is accused of raping a woman he was treating for depression inside his Long Island office, ...

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via prison psychiatry - Google News on 4/19/12

Mother Nature Network
What 'insanity' means for Norwegian gunman
Mother Nature Network
Loughner is undergoing psychiatric treatment in the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri. [Extremism in Prison (Infographic)] People declared not guilty by reason of insanity don't walk free — like Loughner, they're committed.

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via PsychiatryOnline | Topics | Forensic Psychiatry on 4/21/12

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via PsychiatryOnline | Psychiatric News | Topics | Forensic Psychiatry on 4/21/12
More psychiatry is likely to be practiced in public mental health settings in California, enhancing the need for better preparation in management and leadership.Abstract Teaser

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via prison psychiatry - Google Blog Search by Mike Nova on 4/23/12
Mentally ill offenders are subject to poor medical practices due to lower in-prison standards of mental health care. Ill inmates are managed by staff members who are insufficiently trained in treating mental illnesses, and they ...
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What 'insanity' means for Norwegian gunman | MNN - Mother Nature Network

What 'insanity' means for Norwegian gunman | MNN - Mother Nature Network

What 'insanity' means for Norwegian gunman

Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway in July 2011, wishes to be sentenced as sane, but the court may not give him that option.

By Stephanie Pappas, LiveScienceWed, Apr 18 2012 at 4:13 PM EST

Anders Behring Breivik
STANDING TRIAL: Right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik has his handcuffs removed in the central court in Oslo, April 19, at the start of the fourth day of his trial (Photo: Daniel Sannum Lauten/AFP)
Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik, who has admitted killing 77 people in bomb and gun attacks last July, has told judges his actions were political and he was acting in self-defense against a "multiculturalist" conspiracy. His extremist motivations, however, are less likely to determine his fate than whether the court finds him sane or insane.
In Norway, defendants qualify for an insanity defenseonly if they can prove they were in a state of psychosis and not in control of their own actions during the crime. One court-ordered psychiatric examination found Breivik insane, with psychiatrists writing that he was driven by delusions and paranoid schizophrenia. However, a second evaluation held he is sane, according to news reports.
Some U.S. states have a test for legal insanity that's similar to the one used in Norway, said Landy Sparr, the director of the forensic psychiatry training program at Oregon Health & Science University.
"You could have psychiatrists agree on the diagnosis but disagree on whether or not the defendant could control his actions at the time of the crime," Sparr told LiveScience.
Insanity in context
The insanity defense has a long history: Even in ancient Rome, "lunatics" were not held accountable by the legal code, and English common law dating back to the 1200s allowed "madness" as a criminal defense. An early landmark case occurred in 1843, when a gunman named Daniel M'Naghten attempted to kill British Prime Minister Robert Peel in the belief Peel was trying to kill him. M'Naghten accidentally killed Peel's secretary instead; he was declared insane, prompting outrage among British politicians and the public. The case led to the establishment of "the M'Naghten rule," which held that defendant could be considered legally insaneif they did not understand the act they committed or that the act was wrong.
In the United States, 27 states still hold to this standard, Sparr said. Twenty-two others have added a second standard for qualifying for insanity, called the "volitional prong." If a defendant understands right from wrong but was still driven to commit a crime by an "irresistible impulse," he or she also could qualify for legal insanity, Sparr said. Norway uses a modification of this standard, asking whether a defendant was in control of his actions during the crime.[10 Controversial Psychiatric Disorders]
Legal insanity is not the same thing as a medical diagnosis of mental illness, Sparr added. Psychologists and psychiatrists can testify to a defendant's sanity or lack thereof, but it is up to juries to determine whether the defendant's mental state excuses him of liability for his crime.
"When a psychiatrist evaluates somebody, they don't write up an evaluation and then make a comment or statement about whether this person knows the difference between right and wrong," Sparr said. Such a statement would make no difference in treating a psychiatric condition, he said. But in the court of law, it can be the key to a case.
Controversy and insanity
The insanity defense can be especially controversial in a high-profile case such as Breivik's. But in the U.S., that defensive strategy is actually quite rare: Only about 1 percent of criminal defendants use it, and juries reject about four of every five insanity pleas, according to West's Encyclopedia of American Law.
In many cases of severe insanity, the defendant is declared not competent to stand trial and is committed to a psychiatric facility. This was the case with Jared Loughner, accused of killing six people and wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a shooting spree in Tucson, Ariz., in 2011. Loughner is undergoing psychiatric treatment in the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Missouri. [Extremism in Prison (Infographic)]
People declared not guilty by reason of insanity don't walk free — like Loughner, they're committed. In many cases, an insanity defense can end with the defendant locked up for longer than he would have been under another defense.
"Especially for medium-level crimesand low-level crimes, you definitely are in the mental hospital longer" than you would spend in prison, Sparr said.
In a case of multiple murders, as Breivik is charged with committing, neither prison nor a psychiatric hospital is likely to lead to a quick release, Sparr said.
If found sane, Breivik would face a maximum 21-year prison sentence, with options to extend his incarceration if he is still considered a danger to society. If declared insane, the confessed killer would be involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility for as long as he is considered ill.
Breivik himself wants to be sentenced as sane and has called the possibility of being found insane "the ultimate humiliation."
You can follow LiveSciencesenior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescienceand on Facebook.
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