Psychiatric issues in the assessment of offenders

Psychiatric issues in the assessment of offenders
Fitness to be interviewed
· factors to be considered include:
1. Does the detainee understand the police caution after it has been explained to
him or her?
2. Is the detainee fully oriented in time, place, and person and does he or she
recognize the key persons present during the police interview?
3. Is the detainee likely to give answers that can be seriously misconstrued by the
court? i.e. are they able to understand the consequences of their answers
The appropriate adult
· used when the detainee if found fit to be interviewed, but does have a mental illness
or learning disability
· an appropriate adult is:
1. a relative, guardian, or other person responsible for the care or custody of the
subject, or
2. someone with experience in dealing with mentally ill or handicapped people, or
3. some other responsible person who is not a police officer or someone who is
employed by the police
Mental state at the time of the offence
· before anyone can be convicted of a crime, the prosecution must prove the
following:
1. he carried out an unlawful act (actus reus)
2. he had at the time the state of mind necessary to commit a crime (mens rea)
· traffic offences only require actus reus
· the categories of mens rea (loosely translated as meaning a ‘guilty mind’) are:
1. Intent - the person perceives and intends that his act of omission will
produce unlawful consequences
2. Recklessness - ‘is the deliberate taking of an unjustifiable risk’. A man is
reckless with respect to the consequences of his act, when he foresees it may
occur but does not desire it (e.g. pulling the trigger of a gun that you do not
know whether it is loaded or not)
3. Negligence - ‘a man acts negligently when he brings about a consequence
which a reasonable and prudent man would have foreseen and avoided’
(Smith & Hogan 1988)
4. Blameless inadvertence - ‘a man may reasonably fail to foresee the
consequence of his act, as when a slight slap causes the death of an
apparently healthy person: or reasonably fail to consider the possibility of
the existence of a circumstance, as when goods, which are in fact stolen, are
bought in the normal course of business from a trader of high repute’ (Smith
& Hogan 1988)