Community treatment of insanity acquittees is a highly controversial matter among legislators, mental health professionals and the public. At issue is the balancing of public safety concerns with least restrictive, non-punitive rehabilitation alternatives for insanity acquittees. Attempts to determine predictors of dangerousness in mentally ill offenders have produced mixed results with questionable practical value. In view of this, many mental health professionals are instead recommending that research on insanity acquittees be focused on evaluating the effectiveness of mandated community treatment programs for insanity acquittees. One area being designated for such research is the monitoring and management of psychopathology in conditionally released insanity acquittees, as mental deterioration in this population is a primary concern in assuring public safety. This thesis examined the monitoring and management of psychiatric symptomatology in a subsample of conditionally released insanity acquittees.

Thesis (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Theses (Dept. of Psychology) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

No description available.

The crime of habitual drunkenness under s. 360 of the Criminal Code The purpose of this thesis could be summarized as a complex analysis of a crime of habitual drunkenness under s. 360 of the Czech Criminal Code. The described crime (sometimes named 'rauschdelikt᾿) represents one of possible approaches to a problematic question: How to hold a perpetrator who has committed a crime in mental state of insanity (irresponsibility), in which he had induced himself by use of alcohol, narcotics or similar substances, liable? As far as conformity with elementary principles of criminal law (such as 'nullum crimen sine culpa᾿) is concerned, the crime of habitual drunkenness seems to be the most suitable answer to the previous question. The crime of 'rauschdelikt᾿ is an old legal institute that is specific in many aspects. I have chosen the topic within the context of recent recodification of substantive criminal law. A previous regulation of this crime was often criticised for many reasons (e.g. improper title, too stringent penal sanction etc.). Thus we can now review if those criticised deficiencies have been set right. The thesis is divided into ten chapters. Chapter One is introductory and defines basic terminology used in the thesis, such as 'insanity᾿, 'culpability᾿ and so on. The third subchapter...

In my dissertation, I explore the connection between cultural membership and moral responsibility. In particular, I consider what sorts of mitigating excuses, if any, are available to perpetrators of what we take to be serious wrong action due to their unique cultural circumstances. I utilize real-life case studies, and apply various philosophical theories of moral responsibility to these examples. One such theory--offered by Susan Wolf--suggests that these "cultural defendants" may not be responsible for their participation in morally wrong practices due to the possibility that they may have been rendered by their cultures unable to recognize and/or appreciate that these practices were in fact wrong. This would supposedly allow us to claim that they were not culpable for their resulting ignorance or for their morally wrong actions which resulted from acting in accordance with their (actually false) beliefs. I argue that this approach to understanding the relation between moral responsibility and cultural membership is seriously flawed, and provides us with counter-intuitive results about the case studies in question. Consequently, I next examine theories of responsibility which suggest that responsibility may be mitigated not because of an alleged inability to recognize the truth, but rather due to the alleged reasonability of the beliefs of the perpetrators. Lawrence Vogel and Neil Levy offer versions of this strategy. They argue that, because certain morally wrong practices (such as slavery) were endorsed by the societies of certain individuals, their resulting beliefs in the propriety of their actions were epistemically reasonable. It is argued that these persons should not be considered culpable for holding their actually false beliefs or for acting in accordance with them. I argue that the strategy is in many ways preferable to Wolf's inability thesis, yet it nonetheless suffers from ambiguity. The final portion of my project explores the connection between the epistemic status of a belief and a person's moral culpability for holding and acting upon it. I outline the grounds upon which the subjects in the case studies can be held morally culpable for their epistemic mistakes and for their failure to develop and exercise epistemic virtues.

Studies of the Great Depression in Saskatchewan tend to focus on the unsurpassed poverty, unemployment and general suffering that characterize this period. Little research, however, has been conducted on how this suffering may have contributed to the increasing rates of committals in provincial mental hospitals throughout the 1930s. The Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford (SHNB) not only experienced increasing populations, but serious overcrowding throughout the Depression era. The growth and overcrowding of SHNB demonstrates that Saskatchewan society utilized the hospital to fill their needs. This thesis analyses the patient ledgers of SHNB to determine what role mental hospitals played in Saskatchewan society during the Depression. Whether concerned for relatives with perceived mental illness, or apprehensive of their deviant behaviour, families were often the primary actors in initiating committal. Once within the walls of SHNB, patient labour was utilized to ensure both the treatment of the insane and the survival of the hospital. Lastly, SHNB also played a role in shaping Canadian society through the deportation and incarceration of unwanted elements. Through an analysis of patient ledgers, it is clear that SHNB was part of a complex set of strategies used by families, hospital staff and society to both house the insane and deviant and to provide treatment in hopes of returning the deemed ill to sanity.

Studies of the Great Depression in Saskatchewan tend to focus on the unsurpassed poverty, unemployment and general suffering that characterize this period. Little research, however, has been conducted on how this suffering may have contributed to the increasing rates of committals in provincial mental hospitals throughout the 1930s. The Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford (SHNB) not only experienced increasing populations, but serious overcrowding throughout the Depression era. The growth and overcrowding of SHNB demonstrates that Saskatchewan society utilized the hospital to fill their needs. This thesis analyses the patient ledgers of SHNB to determine what role mental hospitals played in Saskatchewan society during the Depression. Whether concerned for relatives with perceived mental illness, or apprehensive of their deviant behaviour, families were often the primary actors in initiating committal. Once within the walls of SHNB, patient labour was utilized to ensure both the treatment of the insane and the survival of the hospital. Lastly, SHNB also played a role in shaping Canadian society through the deportation and incarceration of unwanted elements. Through an analysis of patient ledgers, it is clear that SHNB was part of a complex set of strategies used by families, hospital staff and society to both house the insane and deviant and to provide treatment in hopes of returning the deemed ill to sanity.

This thesis explores the history of ideas about, and responses to, general paralysis of the insane (GPI) - specifically in the context of the developing profession of psychiatry in Britain. It considers GPI as an objective disease entity whose subjective definition was nevertheless open to negotiation; for example, in deciding how central was overt insanity, or how GPI should be differentiated from the allied disease of tabes dorsalis. It explores how psychiatrists' interest in organicism and the science of medicine - and their attempts to raise the status of their specialty - both informed their understanding of GPI, and allowed them to promote it as a flagship disease for their profession. Nevertheless it draws attention to the gap between such claims and concrete practical advances which the disease fostered. The thesis considers changing causal explanations for GPI: first, in relation to the evolving image of the typical general paralytic patient; and second, in relation to the credence attached to different forms of causal evidence such as pathology, statistics, and laboratory medicine. It suggests how assessment of this evidence might have been informed both by professional aspirations and by pervasive cultural concerns such as fear of syphilis and degeneration theory. The thesis studies the use of malaria therapy to treat GPI in Britain, and uses this episode to explore a number of themes: early twentieth century ethical attitudes to heroic treatments; perceptions of 'cure'; and the change in emphasis from asylum care to community care. Finally, it considers ideas about the epidemiological history of the illness - from early twentieth-century theories about the evolution of infections, to Edward Hare's hypothesis of a neurotropic epidemic; and considers how the views of disease as objective entity, and disease as cultural construct, might be reconciled in the context of GPI.

Thesis (LL. M.)--Judge Advocate General's School, United States Army, 1986. / "April 1986." Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in microfiche.

Univ., Diss. u.d.T.: Wylleman, Annelies: Onvolwaardige wilsvorming en onbekwaamheid in het materieel en het formeel privaatrecht--Gent, 1998.