Description: Mental condition defenses have been used in several high-profile and controversial criminal trials in recent years. indeed, mental abnormality is increasingly an important yet complex source of defense within the criminal trial process.
The author offers a detailed critical analysis of those defenses within the Criminal Law where the accused relies on some form of mental abnormality as a source of defense. Topics covered include: the defenses of automatism, insanity, diminished responsibility, and infanticide; self-induced incapacity; and the doctrine of fault. It also includes a chapter on unfitness to plead, which although not a defense has been included because of its important relationship to mental disorder within the criminal process. Drawing upon a wide variety of legal, psychiatric, and philosophical sources, this is a timely contribution to a controversial and complex topic.Review Quotes: "A useful and balanced text that considers an area troubled by nettlesome legal-philosophical issues with which all legal systems must be concerned. [The book] provides a thorough and balanced treatment of issues that have not been satisfactorily resolved by Anglo-American jurisprudence."
--Criminal Law Forum