Chapter 5 review questions PDF

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Chapter 5 Insanity and Competency 1. It is difficult to determine insanity because people can demonstrate psychotic behavior and not fulfill the legal definition of insanity. It is also difficult because the legal definition of insanity varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. 2. No insanity is a disconnect from reality, while psychosis is uncontrollably impulsive behavior. 3. The M’Naghten Rule states that a defendant did not know the nature of the act, or that it was wrong. The ALI Standard states that the defendant did not know the act was wrong or was unable to conform their behavior to meet the requirements of the law. 4. The Supreme Court upheld that states can limit the use of expert evidence about a defendant’s mental state to his or her insanity defense. 5. An affirmative defense deviates or mitigates the legal consequences of a defendant’s unlawful conduct. 6. John Hinckley was charged with attempted assassination of President Reagan. The jury found Hinckley not guilty due to lack of evidence/conflicting evidence provided by the prosecution. Federal laws have now changed in that the ‘burden of proof’ in cases of insanity is on the defense. 7. John Salvi shot and killed a receptionist and wounded three others at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Massachusetts. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He should have been found GBMI, guilty but mentally ill. 8. Forensic Psychologists use the Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scales. It transfers the ALI definition of insanity into 25 variables. They can also use the MSE which is Mental Screening Evaluation 9. The defense expert diagnosed Dahmer as a necrophiliac and therefore could not control his urges to kill. He also stated that Dahmer has a borderline personality which made him

unstable. The expert on the prosecution side argued that Dahmer’s capacity to exert methodical control over his killings was an indicator of his sanity. Since Dahmer was able to control his urges for years in between attacks, and knew how to cover his tracks, he was aware of what he was doing. Dahmer did not meet the Wisconsin Standard of Insanity. 10. The ultimate-issue testimony is now states “No expert witness testifying with respect to the mental state or condition of the defendant in a criminal case may state an opinion or inference as to whether the defendant did or did not have the mental state or condition constituting an element of the crime charged or of the defense thereto. Such ultimate issues are matters for the trier of fact alone.” 11. Competency to stand trial refers to the person’s ability to understand the nature and purpose of court proceedings and it is applicable to every stage of the criminal justice process. There are two types of competency in the legal system; competency to plead guilty and competency to stand trial. They can be assessed by six different tools; the Competency Screening Test (CST), the Competency Assessment Instrument (CAI), Fitness Interview Test-Revised (FIT-R), Georgia Court Competency Test (GCCT), The MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT-CA), the Competency Assessment to Stand Trial for Defendants with Mental Retardation (CAST-MR). 12. Some problems of assessing the competency of a juvenile include; the age, prior diagnosis of or treatment for a mental illness, a lower level of intellectual functioning or learning disability, and possible deficits in memory, attention, or interpretation of reality. 13. Malingering is defined as “the conscious fabrication or gross exaggeration of physical and/or psychological symptoms, done in order to achieve external goals such as avoiding prison or receiving monetary compensation.” The three types of malingering of include: the pathogenic, the criminological, and the adaptational.

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