PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Stephen J. Morse
TI  - Causation, Compulsion, and Involuntariness
DP  - 1994 Jun 01
TA  - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
PG  - 159--180
VI  - 22
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jaapl.org/content/22/2/159.short
4100  - http://jaapl.org/content/22/2/159.full
SO  - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law1994 Jun 01; 22
AB  - This article first addresses the persistent confusion between causation and excuse. It demonstrates that causation is not the equivalent of compulsion and that causation per se is not an excusing condition. Then the article examines the conceptual and practical difficulties presented by the excuse that is variously labeled “compulsion,” “involuntariness,” “volitional problems,” “irresistible impulse,” and the like. It concludes that this excuse, when produced by internal causes, is far less well understood and assessed than forensic clinicians usually assume and that most such excusing conditions are better understood and assessed in terms of rationality problems.