Law Commons^™

The Problem Of Mental Disorder In Crime, Leon A. Tulin

Faculty Scholarship Series

One of the consequences of the law's acceptance of the lay notion
that most people are free rational agents is the tacit assumption that except
in clearly recognizable cases of marked dementia, all people are the
same and should be treated alike. No middle zone is recognized. This
approach to the problem of anti-social behavior is, of course, completely
opposed to the present trend of thought. To the criminologist mental
abnormality is an extremely broad concept; and is merely one of the
factors to be considered in determining in individual cases why an offender
offended and what method of ...