In our reality, not everyone can be held accountable for a crime or an offense. The main requirement for the person responsible before the law is his sanity. What is it considered? We will tell you further about sanity and sanity in criminal law. Consider the characteristics, content of these terms, their legislative regulation.
What is sanity?
We begin with this consideration of the concepts of sanity and sanity in criminal law. Definitions that reveal the meaning of the first:
- Sanity is a necessary characteristic of the subject of a crime. The latter is a conscious volitional act that takes place under the control of consciousness.
- Sane will be any person with undisturbed mental activity, capable of being aware of the fact of an event, the danger to society of their actions (or inaction), and directing their own behavior. This citizen (and he is recognized as mentally full from the above) can also fully perceive the essence, content and reasons for the punishment imposed on him by the judicial system.
- Sanity is the psycho-state of a person, which will consist in his ability to give an account of his own actions, fully control his behavior at the time of the commission of the crime, and also bear a well-deserved punishment, taking into account all the above.
We continue to analyze further the sanity and the sanity in criminal law.
Sanity and fault: the difference
We see that both guilt and sanity are associated with the volitional, intellectual sphere of activity of the subject. Let's look at their key differences:
- Guilt - the attitude (psychological) of the offender to his deed.
- Sanity - the state of mind of the attacker at the time he committed the crime.
- Guilt is a certain work of the psyche, will, consciousness in assessing one’s own deed, anticipating its consequences, guiding one’s own behavior and achieving socially dangerous results.
- Sanity is a prerequisite without which the above would not be possible. Hence, only a sane person can be guilty.
It's time to move on to the second concept.
What is insanity?
To answer the question from the subtitle, we turn to Art. 21 of the Russian Criminal Code. And here’s what it says about sanity and sanity in criminal law:
- A person who at the time of the crime was in a proven insane state cannot be held criminally liable. Why is no punishment imposed? The irresponsible citizen could not assess the actual nature of his own actions, the public harm of his deed (or inaction), and also lead the behavior due to a certain list of reasons. They include dementia, chronic, short-term psycho-disorder, and other painful mental conditions.
- So, insanity is the inability to be aware of the results of one’s activity, to control one’s own behavior due to a mental disorder.
Now we generally know about sanity and sanity in criminal law. We now introduce the specifics important for a greater understanding.
How is insanity determined?
How to decide whether the citizen who committed the crime is mentally full, sane or not? Authorized persons here rely on two criteria:
- Psychological (or legal).
- Biological (or medical).
The problem of sanity and sanity in criminal law is solved with their help. As for the last, medical, criterion, then it establishes the presence of psychological diseases in the subject that can free a person from criminal liability. Which - read on.
Mental disorders causing insanity
We bring specificity to the concept of sanity and sanity in criminal law. According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a citizen suffering from the listed pathologies of the psyche will be declared insane:
- Chronic psycho-disorder. This general category conceals all disorders affecting the system of higher nervous activity, which are characterized by a protracted nature, namely, they continue for a long time with a tendency to increase symptoms and manifestations. This group includes schizophrenia, senile and atherosclerotic sclerosis, progressive paralysis, and infectious protracted course of psychosis. Even if the patient is characterized by periods of remission (temporary improvement of his mental state), they cannot be evidence of his full recovery.
- Temporary psycho-disorder. Another category that helps to reveal the types of sanity and sanity in criminal law. This is the name of an acute mental illness taking place in the form of seizures, which can result in a complete recovery of the patient. What do doctors include in this category? Manic-depressive, infectious acute, reactive acute psychosis, alcoholic melancholy, alcoholic psychosis - delirium tremens. Qualified to include in the group and exceptional condition. This is a pathological intoxication, a pathological effect, a short circuit reaction, a number of forms of a twilight conscious state.
- Dementia. What does the medical criterion of sanity and sanity in criminal law allow to include in this category? Persistent damage to the activity of the psyche, which can be either congenital or acquired as a result of a psychological or nervous illness. Specifically, this is moronity, oligophrenia, idiocy and imbecility.
- Other psychological conditions. And what is characteristic of this vague, at first glance, group? States that may not be connected with the mental system, but proceed so deeply that they are rightfully equated with the diseases and pathologies already listed to us in their degree of severity. The group of doctors includes morphine starvation, severe forms of psychasthenia and psychopathy.
That's all categories of medical criterion that cover possible cases of painful disorders of human mental activity, which can lead to insanity of a person.
The presence of the medical criterion of insanity proves any of the diagnoses we have listed in the history of a citizen who committed a criminal offense.
Therefore, everything is simple here. The medical criterion is a specific diagnosis.
About the legal criteria of insanity
We now turn to the second part. We also analyze the concept and criteria of insanity and sanity in criminal law.
The legal criterion will be divided into a couple of signs:
- Intellectual. This includes the inability of a citizen to realize social harm, the actual nature of his own actions (or inaction).
- Strong-willed. And this is the lack of the ability to manage both their actions and inaction.
Intelligent Feature Example
It will illustrate well the behavior of a citizen suffering from idiocy. Striking the victim, he cannot realize the harm, the danger of such behavior, the causal relationship between his actions and harm to humans.
Examples of schizophrenia are also illustrated. For example, a mother with this mental disorder can strangle her child, assuming she is just hugging him.
An example of a volitional attribute
The following mental patients are most often affected by a volitional component:
- Suffering from epilepsy.
- Transferred delirium tremens.
- Kleptomaniacs (pathological craving for petty thefts).
- Pyromancers (pathological craving for arson).
It is important to note that all these individuals can realize the actual nature of their own activities, but at the same time they cannot control their behavior, refrain from committing a crime. However, this is enough to relieve a given citizen from liability under criminal law.
Responsibility of Sane and Insane Persons
In order for a person to be recognized as insane, he must immediately fit both criteria. But do not think that such a citizen's crime just gets away with it. If a person has committed a harmful, dangerous action while in a state of insanity, measures for compulsory medical mental treatment must be applied to him.
And the important thing about sanity and sanity in criminal law. Responsibility of the sane citizen will occur anyway! Even if, due to some kind of mental disorder, he could not fully realize the actual nature of his own actions (inaction) and assess the social danger of this. These words need clarification and disclosure of another concept.
What is limited sanity?
We turn to Art. 22 of the Russian Criminal Code. Any psycho-disorder that does not exclude the sanity of a citizen should be taken into account by the judicial system when sentencing. In addition, this pathology or disease is the basis for a mandatory series of medical measures.
We know about the sanity and the sanity in Russian criminal law. Now another category. Limited sanity is such a psychological state of a person that cannot exclude criminal liability and subsequent punishment under the Criminal Code. But it says that when committing a crime, a citizen could only limitedly understand the actual nature of his act and understand its social danger, as well as direct his own behavior.
The commission of crime in alcohol intoxication
On average, about 30% of crimes in Russia are committed in a similar state - alcoholic and narcotic. They are regulated by Art. 23 of the Criminal Code. The article says that a person under the influence of drugs or alcohol cannot be considered insane. For him, full responsibility remains.
And here is the conclusion on sanity and sanity in criminal law. Normal physiological intoxication (we do not take pathological into account) may disturb psychological activity in some way, influence actions and decisions. But no matter how strong it is, intoxication is not included in the sphere of insanity. It only narrows the influence of will and intellect on the behavior of the criminal. Therefore, he will be fully criminally liable.
Now you know the difference between sanity and insanity. And also in the course of the criteria for establishing the fact of the latter.