Expertise in criminal law alienation and transitory mental disorder

We will see below the main themes of the Expertise in Criminal Law: The valuation of imputability and responsibility and the prediction of danger and violent behavior.

One of the most important topics in the Expertise in Criminal Law is that of imputability. In Spain, imputability has been defined as conscious voluntariness.

Responsibility is based on imputability, which is the ability of man to act guided. Three degrees of responsibility have been used:

• Attributable (guilty)
• Semi -imputable (attenuated responsibility)
• INIMPUTABLE (irresponsible)

Content

• Expertise in Criminal Law
  • Expertise in Criminal Law: Mental alienation
    • Mental alienation, a complexity for the psychological expert
    • Transitory mental disorder
  • References

Expertise in Criminal Law

A person is responsible for what he does and therefore, he can be declared attributable when he acts maliciously. That is, he who knows what he does and wants to do it.

Knowing implies know, because you have intelligence and want it implies willpower, consequent characteristic of the typical freedom of man. Therefore, the Intelligence and will are the two basic pieces for jurists that there is or not criminal responsibility.

The criminal law describes certain states in which it is presumed that one of these two capacities is missing, exempting from criminal responsibility: mental alienation, transitory mental disorder, perceptual alterations and minority of age. In this article we will see the first two.

Expertise in Criminal Law: Mental alienation

Mental alienation is defined as full disturbance of intellective or volitional faculties of certain permanence or intensity. The term alienated It is established in the Criminal Code of 1932 and remains until the current Criminal Code in which it is replaced by that of anomaly or psychic alteration.

This is already a great advance because it is a little enlightening term (prior to the 1932 code terms such as Crazy, insane, imbecile).

The problem is to determine which mental disorders would be encompassed and which not. The solution is to determine what is the psychological effect that mental illness can produce so that it can be considered as alienated.

The psychological effect must consist of the disturbance of the psychic faculties that prevents the subject from knowing the illicit of their behavior or guiding their activity according to that knowledge.

The consequence of the psychological effect that determines the exempt is that you cannot establish lists of mental disorders based on which if the subject is diagnosed with one of them is considered a mental alienated.

Not doing so, the process is complicated. Generally, The most serious psychosis and forms of mental retardation have been understood in the exempt when they produce the aforementioned psychological effect (which occurs in most cases).

Psychopathies have been rejected to assume a disturbance of affectivity, of character and not influence intellective or volitional abilities (the term psychopathy has been replaced by antisocial personality as a category within personality disorders, DSM-IV).

Mental alienation, a complexity for the psychological expert

From what has been exposed, the importance and complexity of the psychological or psychiatric expertise is deduced. The task of the expert is:

• Examine the author of criminal behavior
• Make the diagnosis of the mental illness to suffer, its intensity and duration.
• Determine the psychological effect that such disease has produced in the subject at the time of committing the crime

The judge corresponds to the information provided by the opinion to declare the responsibility or irresponsibility of the subject.

Transitory mental disorder

It is another of the budgets contemplated in criminal legislation as an exemption of criminal responsibility, provided that it has not been sought to commit crimes to commit crimes.

It can be said that it is a temporary mental alienation that must occur at the time of crime. The psychological effect is the same as in case of alienation, the only difference is in the transience of said psychological effect. The intensity of disturbance must be the same.

The term also appears in the CP of 1932 (it still remains in the current CP of 1995). As is the case with the term of alienation, Transitory mental disorder is a legal term that is not contemplated in any of the classifications Internationals on mental disorders, hence the imprecision of the term from a psychological point of view.

The only difference is that the duration of disturbance should be brief Without leaving sequelae. If we take into account that the expert is claimed at a time that is what the crime was committed, we can assume that the symptoms of the disturbance have disappeared when the evaluation is done.

Therefore, you are asked to evaluate that person's status at a time when it is in a totally different state. In practice therefore It is so difficult to scientifically demonstrate a transitory mental disorder that his disappearance would not represent any inconvenience in judicial practice.

References

• Bernal, a. EITHER. (2009). Fundamentals of Legal Psychology and Criminal Investigation. Salamanca University Editions.
• Clemente, m., & Martín, J. C. R. (nineteen ninety five). Legal guide of the psychologist. Basic legislation compendium for the legal psychologist. Pyramid.
• Muñoz, j. M., Manzanero, a. L., Alcazar, m. TO., González, J. L., Pérez, m. L., & YELA, M. (2011). Legal psychology in Spain: conceptual delimitation, fields of research and intervention and training proposal within official education. LEGAL PSYCHOLOGY YEARBOOK, twenty-one, 3-14.