A study on cases related to Insanity Referred to Forensic Organization of Kerman Between 2012-14

Background and Insanity as one of the factors of criminal responsibility relieves criminals from punishment. Although Insanity in the context of criminal liability has an important role, none of the laws and definitions provided by lawyers properly explain aspects and dimensions of this issue. This ambiguity has made the claim of insanity an excuse to escape from punishment. This gap shows the need for research in this context regard.
In the present study, the cases of that have been referred to the Kerman branch of the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, as cases of insanity through the years 2012-2014 have been reviewed. The legal and psychological concept of insanity on the basis of the criteria provided in the Iranian Penal Code (2012) was also considered in this context. The required data were gathered and then analyzed using SPSS software.
This was a descriptive – cross sectional study. During the study 75 cases referred to the department of forensic psychiatric examinations of Kerman that were associated with psychiatric disorders were studied. Of these, 21 patients had clinical disorders, 35 patients had personality disorders and 9 were diagnosed as cases mental retardation, but only 5 cases of personality disorder were diagnosed as insane, in its Legal-juridical sense.
The results of the study showed that although there are some analogies between mental disorders and insanity in law but it cannot be said that all psychiatric disorders are insanity and in all cases, decisions should be taken on the basis of psychological expert opinions.