Crime Insanity

Today in our criminal justice system, when someone commits a crime they may use insanity as a defense. The insanity defense is when a defendant may be excused from criminal responsibility if at the time of the commission of the act the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from a disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and the quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know that he was doing what was wrong.

Mens rea (the intention of the act of crime) is the mental element of a crime; each offence has its own mens rea. For a person to be found guilty the accused must have at least the minimum level of mens rea. Intention plays a very important role when discussing mens rea. For example, if a person was arrested for driving under influence, that person may not have the intention to drive because he was too drunk to realize he was driving but he has the mens rea or intention to drink. Lawyers battle over the meaning of terms such as right and wrong and ability to control one's behavior. I believe if a crime was committed, as if someone was hurt and etc. a punishment should follow.

It is difficult to determine if someone is telling the truth about their mental state. In the justice system a lot depends on how well a person is defended. When using the insanity plea an attorney must project what his client was or was not thinking at the time of the crime. Insane criminals need special help compared to regular criminals. If we just stick them into general prisons we are shooting ourselves in the foot. They will not get the right services that they need. The insanity defense is used too casually to protect the criminal. Until there comes a way to prove insanity, as applied to criminal activity, it should be abolished in order to protect the mad men that we have roaming the earth.