What happens after insanity?

Often times, after a person is found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI), there is public outcry that the person is "getting off easy" or "just escaping punishment". However, in most cases, recieving a ruling of NGRI can be even worse than if the person were to go to prison to serve a sentence. This page explains how.

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The customer’s always right?

The public, fueled by media, often assume prevalence rates are much higher than they actually are. They also assume sentences are shorter than they actually are! When someone is found NGRI they can serve longer sentences than if they were found guilty!

(Source)

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Success rate

According to an eight-state study, the insanity defense is used in less than 1% of all court cases and, when used, has only a 26% success rate. Of those cases that were successful, 90% of the defendants had been previously diagnosed with mental illness. 

(Source) 

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Strict Guidelines?

There are many strict guidelines that forensic evaluators have to follow. Here are just a few:

Inform the defendant of the reason for meeting

Must disclose that even though they are a psychiatrist (or in some states a psychologist) they will NOT be treating the defendant

Must tell the defendant that if the judge finds the evaluation helpful it will be admitted

Decide who will receive a report of the evaluation

Explain to the defendant the lack of confidentiality

Ask the defendant to recount 1-2 days prior to the incident

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Definition of Insanity

Most states today use the M’Naughten standards to determine if a person qualifies for NGRI. According to the American Academy of Psychology and the Law (AAPL), the definition of insanity is  “ ... at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong ” (AAPL)

Essentially this means that a person must prove that at the time of the CRIME they were suffering some kind of mental break and did not know what they were doing, OR if they did know what they were doing, they didn’t know it was wrong