Blaming your brain for a crime?!

[IB .]

Hey Guys,

I found a neat article about how individuals with mental disorder who have committed a crime can have their punishments alleviated or even exempt.

Here it is: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2013/nov/12/brain-states-criminality-heart-humanity-located

What do you guys think???

[Guest Marioti]

I've always thought this was bs.

I mean the brain belongs to that person and well too bad that he/she has some kind of deficiency that might make them act differently, but if they commit a crime they can't blame it on their brain... It's their brain.

So who is going to be punished? Their brain? Did the brain commit the crime? No. They did.

imo it'll always be a bs excuse

[Arrowhead]

Well, it's not like they're getting away with it. If someone has his/her criminal culpability diminished because they suffer from some kind of mental malady, they end up in a mental ward at a hospital and are strictly monitored. It's not exactly sunshine and roses for them at the end of the road.

 

If the offence was something brought about by temporary diminished capacity, let's say...intoxication (most commonly) or maybe some type of mental disorder that reduces your ability to reason when compared to an ordinary reasonable man (more uncommonly)...the law treats the individuals in question differently.

 

The article (towards the end) gave an example of how a woman who had her drink spiked and then tried to drive home should be treated differently than a man who consciously drank, got wasted and then drove home. Well, such people will be treated differently per the law. Morality, as much as Hartians would abor it, is a core component of the law and the manner in which the law is dispensed. It's not as black and white as populist media will have you believe. The circumstances that put the offender in a position of diminished capacity are very carefully examined when the defence of it is raised, and culpability is thereafter determined based on the relative success of said examination within the bounds of the law.