The Insanity Plea

I wonder if we as a society have gotten to the point that we no longer accept insanity as a defense in court. 50 years ago everyone would have been exposed to individuals with psychological problems. Today due to modern drugs we have dramatically reduced the number of people who outwardly appear to have problems. I think this is a significant part of the problem, lack of exposure. My suspicion is that a majority of people have zero tolerance for non medicated psychological problems. They assume that if a drug exists to reduce their problem the individual should take the drug. Therefore not being medicated means no excuse for any crime committed, that person is guilty of they crime.This is not the only reason that we see people who are “insane” being found guilty instead of being found insane; many people (not me) feel that punishing criminals (as opposed to re-rehabilitating them) is vital.

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