Judging Insanity, Punishing Difference : A History of Mental Illness in the Criminal Court / Chloé Deambrogio.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Deambrogio, Chloé, author.

Series:

Cultural lives of law.

The cultural lives of law

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Insanity (Law)--Texas--History--20th century.

Insanity (Law).

Criminal liability--Texas--History--20th century.

Criminal liability.

Insanity defense--Texas--History--20th century.

Insanity defense.

Forensic psychiatry--Texas--History--20th century.

Forensic psychiatry.

Capital punishment--Texas--History--20th century.

Capital punishment.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (282 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2023]

Summary:

"In Judging Insanity, Punishing Difference, Chloe Deambrogio explores how developments in the field of forensic psychiatry shaped American courts' assessments of defendants' mental health and criminal responsibility over the course of the 20th century. During this period, new psychiatric notions of the mind and its readability, legal doctrines of insanity and diminished culpability, and cultural stereotypes about race and gender shaped the ways in which legal professionals, mental health experts, and lay witnesses approached mental disability evidence, especially in cases carrying the death penalty. Using Texas as a case-study, Deambrogio examines how these medical, legal, and cultural trends shaped psycho-legal debates in state criminal courts, while shedding light on the ways in which experts and lay actors' interpretations of 'pathological' mental states influenced trial verdicts in capital cases. She shows that despite mounting pressures from advocates of the 'rehabilitative penology', Texas courts maintained a punitive approach towards defendants allegedly affected by severe mental disabilities, while allowing for moralized views about personalities, habits, and lifestyle to influence psycho-legal assessments, in potentially prejudicial ways"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Copyright

Series Page

Dedication

Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: The Biological Paradigm (1909-1952)

1. Heredity, Environment, and the Doctrine of Civilization

2. Biology, Insanity, and the Criminal Courts

Part 2: The Psychoanalytic Paradigm (1952-1976)

3. Psychoanalysis, the Insanity Defense, and the Family-Centered Ideology

4. Psychoanalysis and the Construction of the Criminal Psychopath

Part 3: The New Scientific Paradigm (1976-2002)

5. The "New" Scientific Psychiatry, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Future Dangerousness

6. The Abused and Neglected as a "Continuing Threat to Society"

Epilogue: Forensic Psychiatry and Trial Practices in the Twenty-First Century

Appendix

Notes

References

Index

Series List.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Deambrogio, Chloé Judging Insanity, Punishing Difference

ISBN:

9781503637368

1503637360

OCLC:

1410915176