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Social and Behavioral Sciences

2013

Mens rea

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

A Good Enough Reason: Addiction, Agency And Criminal Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse Jan 2013

A Good Enough Reason: Addiction, Agency And Criminal Responsibility, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

The article begins by contrasting medical and moral views of addiction and how such views influence responsibility and policy analysis. It suggests that since addiction always involves action and action can always be morally evaluated, we must independently decide whether addicts do not meet responsibility criteria rather than begging the question and deciding by the label of ‘disease’ or ‘moral weakness’. It then turns to the criteria for criminal responsibility and shows that the criteria for criminal responsibility, like the criteria for addiction, are all folk psychological. Therefore, any scientific information about addiction must be ‘translated’ into the law’s folk …


The Story Of Clark: The Incredible Shrinking Insanity Defense, Janine Young Kim Dec 2012

The Story Of Clark: The Incredible Shrinking Insanity Defense, Janine Young Kim

Janine Kim

This chapter of Criminal Law Stories (Weisberg & Coker, eds. 2010) tells the story of Clark v. Arizona, the case of a schizophrenic teenager convicted of murdering a police officer under the belief that the officer was a hostile space alien. This chapter discusses the significance of the Clark case within the historical context of the insanity defense, especially in light of the reforms that occurred across the country after John Hinckley, Jr.’s acquittal in 1982. It also examines the interplay between insanity and other legal doctrines of criminal responsibility that were implicated at Eric Clark’s trial, including mens rea, …