Eugen Bleuler and forensic psychiatry

The list of Eugen Bleuler's writings shows that he grappled with forensic issues quite early, even before he became a full professor in 1898. Bleuler regularly prepared forensic criminal expert's reports himself until emeritus status was conferred on him in 1927. Analysis of his writings indicates that his position remained explicitly deterministic. In Bleuler's later work, that position was integrated into the natural philosophy vitalistic theory of mnemism, itself part of a more comprehensive theory, without any corrections to its content. Eugen Bleuler always remained a critic of criminal law, although it can be seen from later expert's reports that he for the most part accepted the existing system for the administration of justice for practical reasons. However, Bleuler always defended the idea that punishment should not be based on the moral guilt of the perpetrator but rather on the prospect of curing him.     

Who's afraid of forensic psychiatry?

Forensic psychiatry has come under mounting criticism from the press and other medical professionals, largely for its participation in the insanity defense. The author argues that the expertise available from the specialty is of increasing importance to psychiatry as a whole, as more and more legal issues become relevant to the practice of general psychiatry, and should be actively encouraged and legitimized rather than ostracized. All psychiatrists should be exposed to forensic principles and practices during their training, and the ability of forensic psychiatrists to serve as transducers between the clinical and the legal/judicial should be increasingly used to present the clinical viewpoint effectively in courts and legislatures.     

Teaching forensic psychiatry to medical students

Are separate courses on forensic psychiatry available for medical students? During the 1985 to 1986 academic year, the authors surveyed all U.S. medical schools to identify courses on forensic/legal psychiatry. A minority of schools included separate courses or practicums on forensic psychiatry or mental health law. In a follow-up telephone survey, instructors of each of these courses were interviewed. Information was obtained on format of course, duration, discipline of instructor or instructors, topics covered, reading materials, institutional settings, and the number of students who took the course. The results are discussed and compared with earlier surveys.     

The concept of free will and forensic psychiatry

This text examines how conceptions of free will impact on legal systems and forensic psychiatry: free will is generally regarded as a prerequisite for responsibility, criminal responsibility included, while forensic psychiatry to a large extent deals with the limits imposed on responsibility by mental disorder. First we discuss the question of whether there is and has been such an impact. The answer is yes: different conceptions of free will have inspired different systems of law and forensic psychiatry, as becomes clear when looking at the accountability doctrine as compared to the unique Swedish system rejecting this doctrine. However, there is no necessary connection between doctrines of responsibility and conceptions of free will, since the former primarily says something about when someone should be held responsible and the latter says something about when someone really is free in a sense relevant to responsibility. This leads to the second question: should conceptions of free will have an impact on law and forensic psychiatry? We argue: that they should not, given the implausibility the normative theory retributivism, which posits a direct connection between free will and punishment. More importantly, questions of free will are complicated and unresolved philosophical issues that are better left out of the everyday decision-making incumbent on the legal and psychiatric systems. Instead, we recommend using an empirically useful and gradual conception of autonomy to facilitate the determination of legal responsibility. This autonomy conception, being neutral on the question of free will, eliminates the need to take a stand on it.     

浅议司法精神鉴定主体制度——一种比较分析的思路怂

新<刑法>与<刑事诉讼法>确立了司法精神鉴定结论的证据地位 ,并对司法精神鉴定中的一些基本问题,如鉴定机构、鉴定委托等问题做出了原则性的规定,但相对于司法实践的复杂性与多变性的特征来说(如同中国的许多其他现行法律制度一样),这样的原则性规定却不可避免的呈现出某种滞后与乏力的特征.在市场经济日益发展、法制建设日益得到加强的今天,中国现行司法鉴定制度所赖已存在的理论基础正在弱化,实践中也暴露出越来越多的缺陷和问题,正如有学者指出的那样,"在一个不甚完善甚至弊端百出的鉴定制度下,鉴定人不可能是‘科学的法官',鉴定结论也不可能是‘科学的判决'." 有鉴于此,近年来, 伴随着司法体制改革的司法鉴定制度改革受到了越来越多的关注.     

浅论对刑事案件中的司法精神病鉴定的审查

我国刑诉法第120条规定:精神疾病的医学鉴定由省级人民政府指定的医院进行。因此,公、检、法机关的专职法医不再直接参与司法精神病鉴定,而只对其进行审查。具体而言:一是对提出进行司法精神病鉴定委托或要求的案件进行审查,决定是否进行司法精神病鉴定;二是对已经作出的司法精神病鉴定进行审查,确定其证据效力。一、对刑事案件提出的司法精神病鉴定委托或要求的审查。笔者在实践中体会到:对提出的司法精神病鉴定委托或要求进行审查,决定是否进行司法精神病鉴定时需切实把握住精神病人实施危害行为的下述一般特征:1目的和动机不明显。精神病…     

浅论对刑事案件中的司法精神病鉴定的审查

我国刑诉法第120条规定:精神疾病的医学鉴定由省级人民政府指定的医院进行.因此,公、检、法机关的专职法医不再直接参与司法精神病鉴定,而只对其进行审查.具体而言:一是对提出进行司法精神病鉴定委托或要求的案件进行审查,决定是否进行司法精神病鉴定;二是对已经作出的司法精神病鉴定进行审查,确定其证据效力.     

Violence prevention in psychiatry: an umbrella review of interventions in general and forensic psychiatry

Relative risks of violence in psychiatric patients are high compared to the general population and existing evidence in non-psychiatric populations may not translate to reductions in violence in psychiatric populations. We searched 10 databases including Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and Scopus, from inception until August 2015 for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of violence prevention interventions in psychiatry. Reviews were included if they used a hard outcome measure (i.e. police or hospital recorded violence, or reincarceration) and contained randomized or non-randomized controlled studies. Five reviews met our inclusion criteria (n = 8876 patients in total), of which four received a GRADE rating of ‘low’ or ‘very low’. Three randomized studies (n = 636) reported that therapeutic community interventions may reduce reincarceration in drug-using offenders with co-occurring mental illness (‘moderate’ GRADE rating). The lack of intervention research in violence prevention in general and forensic psychiatry suggests that interventions from non-psychiatric populations may need to be relied upon.