ARE CRIMINALS INSANE?

Shannon News, 1 April 1924, Page 1

ARE CRIMINALS INSANE?

Tho Lord Chief Justice, at the centenary dimner of the "Lancet," issued a timely warning against the adoption of the recommendations of the recent committee on insanity among criminals, states an ex-asylum medical officer in the "baily Mail." Only those who have lived among the alienists ap- | predate the extent to which the whole body is permeated with the idea that every criminal is insane, and should they have the final word in every case in which, the plea of insanity is raised prisoners will hang or go. free on a balance of scientific possibilities. Apart from homicidal mania, which is a well-known form of insanity, the lust of slaying a fellow creature is comparatively rare among the mentally deranged. Compared with the urge towards self-destruction, iti almost negligible. In all forms of insanity it is the repetition of a certain class of acts which is the predominant feature. The megalo-maniac persists in his pretensions, the sexual pervert searches for opportunities to indulge his craving, the kleptomaniac continues to steal. Why, then, should it be advanced that an individual who commits a brutal murder, and who has never atl any time shown a tendency to destroy life, is the automatic victim of a diseased mentality? Is there anything behind this "seeing red" beyond a sudden loss of control —a control which the law is there to see is maintained? How dangerous may become the introduction of the unproved theories of, the consulting-room was shown in a case recently before the courts. A woman was alleged to, be irresponsible for her acts, because she had some impairment of her ductless glands. Yet that these glands are able to influence human conduct is an, hypothesis for which little tangible. proof has been advanced! The rule in McNaughtpn's case, which is that followed in criminal trials, is that for a person to be irresponsible for an act he must not have appreciated that he was doin© wrong. This seems to be the only guide of justice in our present knowledge of insanity, and the conversion of the Assize Court into a psychological chmc is not desirable either from the standpoint of the medical profession or that of the.public. Once an individual is certified ta be so insane a* §to be t