In the 19th century they softened up on the insanity defense and allowed defendants to use it as a not guilty plea. The first person to be found not guilty based upon insanity was Daniel M’Naghten in 1844. What exactly is an insanity defense? The insanity defense refers to a defendant at the time of committing the criminal act lacked the knowledge and mental capacity to stop themselves of committing the crime of that particular time. In different situations some defendants are able to argue that they suffered from irresistible impulse, which means that they understood what they did, was wrong but couldn’t stop themselves from committing the act.
Augustine defends the god of theism by rejecting the existence of evil as a force or power opposed to god as it would reject the premise that god is omnipotent. Below are the ways in which he justifies moral and natural evil, which respectively mean evil caused by human acts, and evil events caused by the processes of nature. To justify evil, he solves the problem by defining evil as a ‘privation’ – which means when something is ‘evil’, it is not defined to contain bad qualities but is seen to be falling short of perfection, or what it is expected to be. Take a rapist as an example. Adopting Augustine’s idea of ‘evil’, we are to say that he is not living up to standards expected of human beings.
When we look through history, we can see the ancient Babylon Laws of Hammurabi as the first written source created to control the bad behaviors. Later in the middle ages and medieval times, the crime is considered as same thing as sin. In that time, it was believed that the demons posessed those who didn’t follow the common general public rules and commited crime. In today’s world, the consideration of crime and the conditions leading to a crime have changed. At the end of twentieth century, the general public had not considered a criminal behavior as a psychological disorder but a will.
People have always believed that it is immoral to punish a person who is not responsible for their criminal behavior, because if a person does not know what they are doing at the time of a crime they should not have to be punished for it. The Roman Empire that found people non-compos mentis (Latin. without mastery of mind) where not held responsible for their criminal actions. The Roman concept of “mastery of mind” has evolved into the modern concept of mens rea or “guilty mind” which is the component of a crime that looks at a person's state of mind (Borum & Fulero, 1999; Costanzo, 2004). Before the McNaughton ruling the insanity defense went through three important phases.
As previously discussed in class, we had come to the conclusion that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was a story about inhospitably, not homosexuality. The attempted act of the villagers toward the angels was not a representation of sexual desire, rather an act to shame the strangers. Leviticus 18:22 “you shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” is the law most quoted by anti-gay WORD, and at face value its meaning seems apparent. The film stresses the need for historic framework of the original authors and culture and reputable theologians describing said history and culture lend authority to the documentary. As a small community, ancient Israelites were concerned with the propagation of its people, and the best way for it to grow was to ‘go for and multiply.’ Importantly, the film demonstrates that acceptance within a Christian community is possible.
Title VII is the basis for discrimination law and judicial decisions….its basic purpose is to prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (Jennings, 2006). After the relationship was over Paula asked for a transfer since Sam continually sexually harassed her. Sam refused the transfer stating the chemicals could harm an early fetus. Paula is not pregnant which is sexual discrimination. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1974, which defined “sex” discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and child birth (Jennings, 2006).
Their focus is on the control factors that prevent people from committing criminal or delinquent acts (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990; Hirschi, 1969; Nye, 1958; Reckless, 1967; Reiss, 1951; and Sykes & Matza, 1957). People obey the law because they are responding to appropriate social controls. People who violate the law do so because their social controls are not working or their bonds to law-abiding people have been broken or were never developed (Reiss, 1951). The question becomes not how to prevent criminal behavior, but how to get people to engage in law-abiding behavior. This paper examines a variety of approaches by social control theorists.
The Supreme Court, in 1986, ruled that according to the Eight Amendment a legally insane, which is not the same as being mentally ill, prisoner could not be executed because it is “cruel and unusual punishment”(Davison and Neale, p539). This has now created another issue because legally mental patients have the right to treatment, the right to the least restrictive treatment, and the right to refuse treatment. It is this last right that is the focus with mentally ill patients on death row: Can the state force this same kind of prisoner to take medication to become sane enough for execution? The U.S Supreme Court has held that prisoners may be forced to take anti-psychotic medications to ensure that they are competent to stand trial. Nonetheless,
if the defendant had an honest belief). In the case of DPP v Harper [1997] 1 WLR 1406 the court held that insanity was not a defence as it requires mens rea and as a strict liability crime is not valid. Most traffic offences are strict liability, i.e. speeding, where a ticket is issued regardless of whether or not you thought you were within the speed limit. Cases of Statuary Rape also hold the defendant strictly liable even if the defendant believed the victim to be of the age of consent, for example the case R. v G [2008] UKHL 37 where the appellant held that the complainant had told him she was 15.
With the intention, Mens Rea is formed by recklessness too. Recklessness is a lack of care and lack of compromise with to avoid the result. Recklessness is formed, basically, by the breach of duty of care and foreseeable and preventability. There are several types of recklessness, however this distinction is unnecessary, because in Spain when an individual acts with recklessness, acts with it, it does not matter what kind of recklessness it is. To punish the recklessness of an individual is necessary that the crime (with recklessness) is written in a SCC, for example the manslaughter in Spain is punished because there are an article that contemplates.