The Insanity Defense before 1800
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9767307 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nigel Walker (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1985 |
| Volume | 477 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 25-30 |
| Publication date | 1985-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0002716285477001003 |
| PMID | 11616555 |
| OpenAlex | W2146090735 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 4 |
The earliest context in which madness is treated as an excuse for crime is Justinian's Digest. The Christian church brought this feature of Roman law to pre-Norman England. Madmen were probably not regarded as triable by ordeal, but were simply left to be guarded by their kinsfolk. When trial by ordeal was abandoned, and juries had to determine guilt, juries were at first expected to find madmen guilty but refer their cases to the king for pardon. It was not until about 1500 that juries seem to have begun to acquit on grounds of insanity. The reasoning varied: madmen were “punished enough by their madness”; they “lacked the will to harm”; they could not “tell good from evil.” How strictly the tests of insanity were applied depended on the crime. The rejections of the defense that figured in the State Trials series were not typical, but gave historians the impression that the defense hardly ever succeeded before Hadfield's trial in 1800. In fact, as the Old Bailey Sessions Papers show, it often succeeded in the eighteenth century. Nor was this the result of empire building by the medical professions. Laymen's evidence was often accepted without any testimony by mad-doctors
Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Criminology · Diminished responsibility · Empire · Excuse · Harm · Insanity · Insanity defense · Political science · Punishment (psychology · Trial by ordeal · Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Les enfermements d’un vagabond criminel. Vacher, tueur de bergers
Searching for the Self in Eighteenth-Century English Criminal Trials,1730-1800
The Origin of Insanity as a Special Verdict
The History of Madness and Mental Illness in the Middle Ages
Drunkenness and Responsibility for Crime in the Eighteenth Century
The Modern Foundation for the Insanity Defense
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,15 |
| Citation span | 1985 - 2023 (39) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |