RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Myths, Realities, and the Political World: The Anthropology of Insanity Defense Attitudes
JF Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
JO J Am Acad Psychiatry Law
FD American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
SP 5
OP 26
VO 24
IS 1
A1 Perlin, Michael L.
YR 1996
UL http://jaapl.org/content/24/1/5.abstract
AB The author presents the case that society's efforts to understand the insanity defense and insanity-pleading defendants are doomed to intellectual, moral, and political gridlock unless we are willing to take a fresh look at the doctrine through a series of filters—empirical research, scientific discovery, moral philosophy, cognitive and moral psychology, and sociology—in an effort to confront the single most important (but rarely asked) question: why do we feel the way we do about “these people” (insanity pleaders)? He examines this question finally through a model of structural anthropology and concludes that until we come to grips with the extent to which ours is a “culture of punishment,” we can make no headway in solving the insanity defense dilemma.