NCJ Number
100647
Editor(s)
D N Weisstub
Date Published
1984
Length
248 pages
Annotation
Experts present state-of-the-art reviews on American research and practice in the areas of the insanity defense, the law of informed consent, rapists' behaviors and treatment, jury research, and psychiatric assessment in the forensic setting.
Abstract
A comprehensive review of reactions to the Hinckley acquittal concludes that the ensuing debate added little substance to the criminal responsibility law debate, but did result in a trend toward abandoning volitional impairment as a basis for the insanity defense. A historical survey of the doctrine of informed consent focuses on the key forces that shaped the doctrine and reviews changes in consent law, standards of disclosure, exceptions to the doctrine, legislative initiatives, and consent in special circumstances. Another article examines the incidence of rape in Western societies, typologies of rapists, differences between rapists and nonsexual offenders, and treatment approaches. A critical review of methods based on behavioral research that have been proposed to help attorneys with voir dire in jury selection contends that such approaches have not been empirically validated. The last two essays address psychiatric assessment: one focuses on forms of assessment unique to forensic psychiatry while the other explores the assessment of criminal responsibility in both forensic and clinical settings. Each chapter includes an abstract in English and French. Index.