PSYCH 130 Study Guide - Final Guide: Outpatient Commitment, American Law Institute, Insanity Defense
11 May 2018
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Chapter 16 Legal and Ethical Issues
American Law Institute guidelines
• A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result
of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the
criminality of his conduct or conform his conduct to the requirements of law.
• As used in the article, the terms “mental disease or defect” do not include an
abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or otherwise antisocial conduct
assisted outpatient treatment
• AOT is one way of increasing medication compliance.
• It is an arrangement whereby a person is mandated by the court to receive treatment on
an outpatient basis
civil commitment
• is a set of procedures by which a person who is deemed mentally ill and dangerous but
who has not broken a law can be deprived of liberty and placed in a hospital.
competency to stand trial
• must be decided before it can be determined whether a person is responsible for the
crime of which he or she is accused.
Confidentiality
• nothing will be revealed to a third party except for other professionals and those
intimately involved in the treatment, such as a nurse or medical secretary.
criminal commitment
• a procedure that confines a person in a mental or forensic hospital either for
determination of competency to stand trial or after acquittal by reason of insanity
• People with a psychological disorder who have broken the law or who are alleged to
have done so are subject to criminal commitment
guilty but mentally ill (GBMI)
• allows an accused person to be found legally guilty of a crime—thus maximizing the
chances of incarceration—but also allows for psychiatric judgment on how to deal with
the convicted person if he or she is considered to have been mentally ill when the act
was committed.
in absentia
• Another way to look at competency
• refers to the person’s mental state, not his or her physical presence.
informed consent
• The core of ethical research
• The investigator must provide enough information to enable people to decide whether
they want to be in a study.
insanity defense
• the legal argument that a defendant should not be held responsible for an illegal act if it
is attributable to a psychological disorder or intellectual disability that interferes with
rationality or that results from some other excusing circumstance, such as not knowing
right from wrong.
• insanity defense is based on the accused’s mental condition at the time the crime was
committed
irresistible impulse
• if a pathological impulse or uncontrollable drive compelled the person to commit the
criminal act, an insanity defense is legitimate.
least restrictive alternative
• The least restrictive alternative to freedom is to be provided when treating people with
psychological disorders and protecting them from harming themselves and others.
M’Naghten rule
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