To find out what they mean by the term “age-related insanity,” you should refer to the current legislation of our country. Traditionally, the main judicial task is to determine a decision by which the punishment would adequately correspond to the offense committed by a person. This forces to take into account all the features and circumstances of the situation, the nuances of personal development. The institution of sanity comes to the fore, because only through it you can understand whether the person was aware of what she was doing.
Age and Adequacy
As noted in the laws, the age-related insanity of the subject is an institution that allows to exclude liability under the Criminal Code if the psyche of a person is less developed than it should be in accordance with biological age. Traditionally, this topic has attracted the attention of jurists throughout the formation of the domestic legal system. The Institute is interested and is the subject of research by top lawyers from other countries.
The main object considered in the case studies is the criteria to talk about insanity. It is equally important to be aware of the principles of applying the accepted criteria to a specific situation.
About basic terminology
If there are three related concepts - age, age insanity, criminal liability. By age, it is customary to understand a complex phenomenon, while legal sources regard it more often from only one point of view. A biological criterion is established. A person is subject to conviction under the Criminal Code from the age of 16, and for some violations of the law - two years earlier.
In what conditions they talk about the signs of age-related insanity, you can find out by looking in more detail at the legislative standards. They indicate the applicability of such a term to a person who has biologically reached the age limit, after which he can be held responsible for what he has done. Moreover, one can only be found guilty whose psyche, morality, social understanding and self-awareness have reached the appropriate level of development. Individual development presupposes a person’s ability to manage his decisions when he has the opportunity to choose. In this case, the person should be guided by social rules, determine their goals, ways to achieve them, remembering the possible consequences for others. A normal person preliminarily evaluates each of his actions, focusing on the norms of law and morality inherent in our society.
About signs
There are medical criteria for age-related insanity. They imply a slowdown in the development of the psyche, which is why a person lags behind normal peers. In this case, it is important to make sure that there are no mental disorders, diseases. The legal criterion for this phenomenon includes a person’s inability to fully and adequately recognize how dangerous he did to others. Legal interpretation implies the impossibility of recognizing the actual nature of acts or their absence. This also includes the inability of a person to lead his actions or their absence.
A temporary criterion is an aspect related to the presence of the first two mentioned signs simultaneously at the moment when a person has done something dangerous for society. It is necessary to analyze whether both aspects influenced the person, how exactly.
Concepts of law
In modern legal science, dealing with the age-related characteristics of the subject of crime, age-related insanity, it is customary to interpret VN as a concept that includes reaching the age limit, after which criminal liability is stipulated by laws, while at the time of the act the person was not aware of what was happening due to the slow development of the psyche, although had no pathologies.
As established scientifically, in the case of VN, a person who has not reached the age of eighteen years cannot be punished in accordance with the Criminal Code. At the same time, they are not talking about true insanity due to the lack of the medical aspect described above. Slow formation of the psyche is associated with the characteristics of age, and not pathologies. Slow development of the mental aspect is revealed by the use of standard techniques without specific nuances of the process. To confirm the fact of age-related insanity, it is necessary to conduct a special examination with the participation of highly qualified psychologists, psychiatrists.
The nuances of the phenomenon
When talking about age-related insanity, it is assumed that a person is not mature, while his biological age is over 14 years old. To establish the fact of VN, it is necessary to organize an examination. The initiator of the event is the court. If a person is recognized as insane, punishment under the Criminal Code cannot be applied to him. The court may send the person forcibly treated. Possible hospital conditions. There is a chance of an outpatient therapeutic program. Treatment is practiced in a specialized hospital. The basis of therapy is general.
If insanity is accompanied by a pathological affect, intoxication, most of the forced therapy is not needed. Partial insanity is possible. The court recognizes the situation as such if there is a need to mitigate the level of guilt of a person in relation to a committed unlawful act. Partial becomes insanity due to coarse mental disorders. At the same time, a person does not lose absolutely the ability to evaluate his actions. But in the case when a person has not yet reached the age of punk, after which they talk about civic maturity, his insanity is considered physiological.
Interpretation and terminology
The current understanding of the HH phenomenon, relevant to the legal system of our country, involves the interpretation of the phrase narrowly or broadly. A narrow understanding suggests that psychological disorder becomes an absolute factor in eliminating the use of the concept of age-related insanity to a person. In a broad version of the interpretation, when identifying VN, the possibility of mental disturbance is allowed if it does not lead to a violation of sanity. Take into account that there are such mental disorders in which the pace of development of the human psyche remains standard.
Legal understanding of VN
This criterion combines a couple of signs: intelligence, the will of the person. The first assumes the person’s inability to adequately realize the deed, his danger to people around. The volitional criterion implies an inability to control one’s own actions, to direct actions.
To determine the VL, it is necessary to identify at least one significant sign of the condition stipulated by the laws. Responsibility for determining the legal criteria lies with the court. The decision is made based on the results of a comprehensive study of the psyche, human psychology with the involvement of experienced specialists.
About time and VN
To determine the VL, the time criterion is analyzed. Current laws determine the need for the simultaneous manifestation of medical, legal grounds for recognizing a person as insane. Accordingly, the totality of signs must be present clearly strictly at the moment when a person commits a dangerous act, violates the law. A temporary criterion is the key to recognizing a person as insane. It combines the two previously described.
A temporary criterion is devoted to the determination of the fact that a person, committing some act, did not have a mental deviation, because of which he could not normally evaluate the actions. VN, as follows from this conclusion, is a complex of temporary, legal, medical criteria. It is determined by the court, indicates the impossibility of applying the rules of the Criminal Code to the individual, despite the fact that something illegal, committed by a person, should be punished precisely for this code of laws. Insanity is a legal category. This follows from the fact that such a status can only be given by the court.
Object and actions
The significance of VN is that a person recognized as such, by default, can not be the subject of an offense. Hence, there is no composition of the act, as a consequence, responsibility. The value of VN for the Criminal Code is regulated by the fact that a person recognized as VN cannot be held liable under the Criminal Code. Forcing a person to treatment is also difficult, because lagging in the formation of the psyche is not a disease. It is impossible to apply educational measures in a forced form, that is, according to the Criminal Code there are no legal measures applicable to VN.
The laws of our country noted the possibility for VN who have not reached the age of majority, due to an unlawful act, to be in a special closed educational institution where a person will be taught. Such a measure does not belong to the category of criminal law.