The criminal responsibility of the insane : a lecture introductory to the session 1885-6 / by Charles J. Cullingworth.

  • Charles James Cullingworth
Date:
1885
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The criminal responsibility of the insane : a lecture introductory to the session 1885-6 / by Charles J. Cullingworth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    scaffold with the surprised look of a man awaking from a dream, utterly failing to comprehend the meaning of it all, without being shocked at the scandalous inhumanity of the proceeding, and without feeling that he would bo guilty of moral cowardice, if, when occasion offered, he did not raise his voice against the system that sanc- tioned it. Br Suggested But I must hasten to indicate, as briefly as possible, ; j changes. J L the changes which, it seems to me, would help to remedy the evils to which I have called attention. ir We have seen how the legal tests of insanity under- went alteration from time to time, in accordance with the growing tendency to a more humane regard for the un- fortunate victims of that disease. We have also seen that no change has been made in them since 1843, now up- ; wards of forty years ago, although the rules that were then formulated, are now so far behind the time as to be discreditable. A further change has become imperative. What direction ought that change to take 1 ,, Knowledge-] In the first place, the existing tests, which are mere should be knowledge-tests, should be entirely abolished, the question i;! abolished. of responsibility depending not upon a person’s knowledge, but upon his capacity for acting upon that knowledge : that is, upon his power of self-control. ,, Provision Secondly, in any future legislation on this subject, for the cusc of idiots and provision should be made for the case of idiots and jij: imbeciles. imbeciles, to whom no reference is made in the existing rules, but who certainly ought not to be prevented from pleading insanity because their insanity happens to be due to defect, and not to disease. Might not In the next place, it is well worth considering whether . the form of 1 ’ ° . verdict the preseut form of verdict might not be altered with be altered i 1 °