Forensic Psychology What is the concept of imputability and who can be applied

In 2003, Noelia de Mingo, a medical profession, wounded three people and killed five due to an outbreak of schizophrenia she suffers. The Provincial Court of Madrid acquitted it criminally for "mental alienation" and ordered that it be admitted to a psychiatric for a maximum of 25 years and that it did not leave it without being assessed judicially. That is, he considered it imputable and dictated complete exemption.  In 2017, the judge ruled the internal regime of Noelia de Mingo for outpatient treatment and family custody. This same year, he wounded again in hand, to two women.

Content

• The concept of imputability to whom can be applied?
  • A) Mental alienation: Anomalies or psychic alterations
  • B) Full poisoning due to drug or alcohol consumption
  • C) Alterations in the perception of reality
  • D) Minority of age
• Types of exempts according to the loss of capacities
  • 1. Complete exemption
  • 2. Incomplete exemption
  • 3. Analog attenuating

The concept of imputability to whom can be applied?

Within forensic psychology and law it arises The concept of attributable and inimputable. It is said that a person was attributable at the time of committing the crime when he had the ability to understand and value the nature and illegality of the fact, and also, the ability to act according to that appreciation. Therefore, the concept of imputability occurs when the subject sees cognitive and volitional capacities diminished:

• The cognitive capacity: Ability that a subject possesses to capture the aspects of reality through the senses and understand them. If the subject possesses everything that allows enough critical judgment to assess whether a behavior is harmful, harmful, harmful, etc. or it is not.
• The volitional capacity: as the ability to voluntarily direct our behavior. The ability to control it.

That is, a subject at the time of committing a crime had cognitive and volitive capacity, it would be considered imputable.

The causes of imputability or lack of ability to understand and value the fact, which are collected in the Criminal Code (Art.20) There are three: mental alienation; performance under drug or alcohol; and alterations of the perception of reality. To these it should be added the minority assumptions as can be seen from the art. 19.

In any case, we must bear in mind that according to these circumstances (mental illness, drugs or alcohol, or alteration of perception) to the subject, the judge may agree to exempt him from criminal responsibility, or simply lower the penalty.

A) Mental alienation: Anomalies or psychic alterations

It is contained in art. 20.1º CP for cases of existence of a pathological cause of psyche, expressed in very broad terms such as any kind of anomaly or psychic alteration, provided that as a result of this pathological base the Impossibility of understanding the illegality of the fact or of acting according to that understanding.

Among the diseases that most usually determine the appreciation of the exemption, are psychosis; schizophrenia; alcoholism; Psychopathy or personality disorder; and the so -called transient mental disorders.

B) Full poisoning due to drug or alcohol consumption

It is contained in art. 20.2º of the CP, who points out that he is exempt from criminal responsibility, “the one that at the time of committing the criminal offense is in full state of full poisoning due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages, toxic drugs, narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or others that produce analogous effects, provided He has not been sought with the purpose of committing it or would not have planned or due to foresee his commission.

or it is under the influence of a withdrawal syndrome, because of its dependence on such substances, which prevents you from understanding the illegality of the fact or acting according to that understanding ”.

C) Alterations in the perception of reality

The art. 20.3º of the CP points out that it is exempt from criminal responsibility, “the one who, by suffering alterations in the perception from birth or from childhood, has seriously altered the awareness of reality”.

In the opinion of jurisprudence, This exemption is a lack of communication with the external world, which determines serious deficiencies to cope or morally orientate coexistence with other citizens. That is, a situation of incommunication suffered with the social environment from birth or from childhood, as a result of a perceptual alteration produced by a sensory defect or by exceptional environmental circumstances, which limit the individual's socialization process. Cases of deafness, blindness, brain anomalies are common. Of course, they determine the lack of understanding of the unlawful fact.

D) Minority of age

The art. 19 of the CP indicates that The children under eighteen are not "will be criminally responsible for this code". This provision does not mean that those under eighteen are completely imputable, or that they are exonerated from any criminal sanction, but will be responsible for the Organic Law of Criminal Responsibility of the minor (the 5/2000 of January 12), which establishes a Criminal process for children under eighteen and over fourteen, who commit any criminal act.

Types of exempts according to the loss of capacities

1. Complete exemption

When the prosecuted subject presents a personality disorder, if it is not of great intensity, in principle, the subject may not have affected any of his faculties (neither cognitive nor volitional), or perhaps only those present slightly diminished. However, if this disorder was combined with other factors such as alcohol, it is usual an affectation of its faculties.

This Inimputability situation will take place when said agent exacerbates personality disorder, leading the individual to present an impulse that causes him an alteration of his inhibitory brakes, to the point that he loses the volitional capacity that the CP demands to apply the exemption. This guy was the one that was applied to Noelia de Mingo due to his outbreak caused by schizophrenia.

2. Incomplete exemption

This situation occurs When the anomaly or alteration does not totally prevent understanding the illegality of the fact, But they reduce understanding or reduce freedom of determination and volitional attitude.

3. Analog attenuating

These circumstances that decrease the criminal responsibility generically contemplated in the criminal law in response to the identity of reason or structure and motivation with those specified in the norm.

In practice, it is difficult to specify the distinction between incomplete exemption and analog attenuating.

As a general rule, Most personality disorder subjects are criminally applying an analog attenuating (Jiménez and Fonseca, 2007).

For all what was said above and by way of summary, currently in Spain the Criminal Code together with forensic psychology, collect inimputability in cases where the subject had the volitional and cognitive capacities diminished.