Significance of the Mental Health of Criminals with Personal Disorders for the Individualization of the Highest Criminal Punishments Cover Image

Значение на психичното здраве на извършители с личностови разстройства при индивидуализация на най-тежките наказания
Significance of the Mental Health of Criminals with Personal Disorders for the Individualization of the Highest Criminal Punishments

Author(s): Iva Pushkarova
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Criminal Law, Sociology, Substance abuse and addiction, Health and medicine and law, Penology
Published by: Нов български университет
Keywords: Alcoholic; Disease; Court; Criminal Justice; Criminal Liability; Grave Penalty; Insanit; Life Imprisonment; Life Imprisonment without Commutation; Medical Care; Mental Deficiency; Mental Disorder
Summary/Abstract: Perpetrators of extreme crime usually suffer from mental health damages which do not qualify as legal insanity. The most common among them is the mental/personality disorder. Judicial approaches towards it differ from concept that it is a sufficient condition to deny the imposition of the gravest penalty to a belief that it is a sufficient ground for imposing it as it is directly related to the perpetrator’s dangerousness. The article argues that personality disorder is a mitigating circumstance which prevents courts from choosing the gravest penalty. The article is based on a case-law study and analyses in depth a selection of cases.