☆ENGLISH ONLY☆コミュのDo you think the mental illness shold be a reason for escaping the normal punishment for a crime?

Do you think the mental illness shold be a reason for escaping the normal punishment for a crime?

i would like to know your opinion on this topic.
As most of you know, in japan, when the crimal is recognized and proved to have mental illness, he can escape from normal punishment. i believe this is fair concerning the capacity of taking responsibility. however, mental illness is often used as a excuse to escape from punishment when he or she doesn't have mental disease. Although, it is hard to say that the heinous criminals are totally sane and conscious at the time when they commit crimes.
please discuss freely.

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[1] mixiユーザー 01月19日 02:38

Primary reason of this being the person with some mental illness is unable to think logically and reasonably, so leading to assumption that the crime committed by the person was not done on a deliberate motive.

Some commit a crime intentionally may feign insanity at the time of interrogation to escape arrest yes..but I think few can manage to escape like that because now crime investigation teams use every technology tools possible to catch the killer..

[2] mixiユーザー 01月19日 03:00

Well its not only applicable in the case of Japan.
You should watch the Richard Gere starrer "Primal Fear".

[3] mixiユーザー 01月19日 03:22

well the crazy people may not have any responsibility but to release them with no punishment bears a lot of responsibility, and it IS crazy. Keep them from society at least until their craziness is cured to prove that the society is NOT crazy.

[4] mixiユーザー 01月19日 21:20

thank you for your statements. i think this question is difficult. i would like to hear more ppls opinion.

[5] mixiユーザー 01月19日 21:59

I only think if the mental illness people kill the person, for bereaved family, it must be miserable things.
Because only he or she has mental illness, they can escape their crimes.

[7] mixiユーザー 01月19日 23:00

i don't think the mental illness should be a reason for escaping the normal punishment for a crime.
defining mental illness is a crime against humanity.
have you ever seen "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?"
no one should be put away in a mental hospital. and no one should be regarded as mental illness.
anyone who commit a crime should be punished equally.

[8] mixiユーザー 01月19日 23:17

they have special prisons for "the criminally insane"
Such as murderers and all that....
But what about .... crimes other then murders?
I think if a person is that far gone as to be able to use the excuse of mental illness then they should be kept in a hospital for these cases.
I know there are people with mental illness who can function relatively well and should know how to behave properly. In these cases I think no... it is not an excuse to escape punishment. It should be dealt with accordingly with the seriousness of the crime and how bad there mental state actually is.

[9] mixiユーザー 01月19日 23:37

To answer the question you need to understand the question.

There are different types of mental illness, but mental illness does not necessarily mean you are not responsible for your actions.t

But someone who is seriously disturbed cannot be held responsible for their actions. In this case, the ones in the wrong are the people who let this happen. If you left your baby in such an individuals care, and there was an accident, who is to blame?

Also, bare in mind that mental illness does not mean you "escape" punishment. If its a serious crime, such a person would be put into a facility to try to ensure such a thing would not happen again, say, for example, a murder.

If a young child takes some candy from a store, should it go to jail? People will understand that the child doesn't understand what it's done. What if it's a diamond ring? More serious, but again, the child can't really be held responsible.

There are certainly people with mental illness who have child like minds, and some may have trouble telling the difference between "right" and "wrong". They are like children in the body of an adult. Can they be held responsible for their actions?

Some illnesses certainly affect your actions, but not to the point that they are uncontrollable, or that you don't know what you're doing.

I would go so far as to say that I imagine a lot of criminals have some sort of mental illness/instability.

I didn't really give an answer, but just rambled, sorry.

[11] mixiユーザー 01月20日 12:46

Basically , it is a bit foolish to exempt the people suffering from mental illness from punishments .
Such a person should be kept under strict supervision by his guardians or parents .
In case he commits anything which may be termed as a crime , then he should be held responsible and termed with sufficient punishment , depending on the degree of crime he committed .
If not punished , then what's the guarantee that he will not repeat the same act again , and also escape again with same excuse of mental illness .
What if want to kill a person , and just get a fake medical certificate for mental illness before that .
Wow , a good way to get rid off all my enemies . LOL
:-D
Hope you get my point .
Abhi

[12] mixiユーザー 01月20日 15:04

I would say that society as a whole is responsible for creating mental illness. People and their Governments must be held responsible for the environment they create for their peers and citizens. That is why I think the criminally insane get lesser punishments for their crimes.

[13] mixiユーザー 01月21日 00:32

Tony >> valid point.
But you need to remember some people are born with certain mental illness.

[14] mixiユーザー 01月21日 02:02

Looking at it all, I would say YES and NO, in the case of "petty" crime...no...because these do not leave lasting damage to victims, in the case of EXTREME crimes, example: murder, rape, child molesting, they should be outright shot on the spot ( the bullets are an excellent use of tax dollars ), as anyone who does these crimes are a cancer on humanity and offer nothing but negative and destructive things, at the expense of tax payers keeping them alive.

There are varying degrees of mental illness, some of them being outright funny some of them being just warped and sick and a danger to society.

[16] mixiユーザー 01月21日 08:37

As some mentioned above, mental illness is a lose definition. There are different diagnostic categories and different severity. You can not discuss them all together.

You'd feel differently if the murderer was suffering from drug dependence and was experiencing drug-induced hallucination during the time of crime compared to someone who is psychotic and was having a lot of active symptoms, resulted in killing "evil spirit". Former case, I do not think he/she can get away from the punishment, but later case, you may or may not depending on what expert witnesses find.

There are two separate issues to be considered: first, how mental disorder affected the person's behavior at the time of crime, and second, is s/he capable to stand in trial by himself/herself? how sever is the disorder? Does s/he have capability to make rational judgment and defend himself/herself at the trial? Does s/he benefit from punishment?

This is not unique to Japan. There are a lot of questionable cases found in the US., too.

Besides, punishment is not really effective to change criminal's behavior, but I guess that is not really relevant to this topic.

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