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PSYCHOLOGY WEBSITES OF THE WEEK — FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY

UNDERSTANDING THE INSANITY DEFENSE

Two related websites are featured this week.  Each deals with the legal system and the insanity plea.

#1   This website from findlaw.com provides an “article focusing on the M’Naghten Rule for testing legal insanity, often called the “right-wrong” test and used by the majority of states.”  It can be used in conjunction with the Abnormal/Psychopathology chapters of the text.

 

SOURCE URL:

http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/the-m-naghten-rule.html

 

#2   A person accused of a crime can acknowledge that they committed the crime, but argue that they are not responsible for it because of their mental illness, by pleading “not guilty by reason of insanity.”  This website examines a number of the different legal “rules” employed by the courts in the determination of the insanity plea.

 

SOURCE URL:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/insanity_defense

 

HOW TO USE THESE SITES

For discussion of these cases in the news that deal with the “insanity plea,” these sites provide background to the understanding of juxtaposition of the legal vs psychological perspectives used by both he prosecution and the defense.  In addition to the case in the Psychology Update, these sites will be helpful in understanding the past cases of  Andrea Yates, Jared Laughner,  James Holmes (Batman shooter”), Dylan Roof (Charleston church shooter) trial and others in the news.

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