Lawrie Reznek addresses these questions and more in his controversial investigation of the insanity defense in Evil or Ill? Drawing from countless intriguing case examples, he aims to understand the concept of an excuse, and explains why the law excuses certain actions and not others. In his easily accessible and elegant style, he explains that in law, there exists two excuses derived from Aristotle: the excuses of ignorance and compulsion. Reznek, however proposes a third excuse - the excuse of character change. In introducing this third excuse, Reznek raises a controversial possibility - the abolition of the insanity defence.

Autorentext

Lawrie Reznek is both a trained philosopher and psychiatrist. He teaches psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is also the author of The Nature of Disease (Routledge, 1987), The Medicine Men (Collins, 1990), and The Philosophical Defence of Psychiatry (Routledge, 1991).

Inhalt

Introduction; Chapter 1 A History of Criminal Responsibility; Chapter 2 A Taxonomy of Defences; Chapter 3 Ignorance as an Excuse; Chapter 4 Compulsion as an Excuse; Chapter 5 Automatism as an Excuse; Chapter 6 The Justification of Excuses; Chapter 7 Causality as an Excuse; Chapter 8 The Reductionist Theory; Chapter 9 Irrationality as an Excuse; Chapter 10 The Concept of Disease; Chapter 11 Character Change as an Excuse; Chapter 12 The Clash of Paradigms; Chapter 13 The Insanity Defence in Practice; Conclusion;