Bad or mad? Personality disorders and legal responsibility - The German situation

Criminal offenders have a high rate of personality disorders (PDS), especia lly Antisocial Personality Disorders and psychopathy, but criminal acts are not necessarily the result of PD. Findings from psychiatric research sugge st that the development of PD is influenced by genetic factors, that can re sult in deviant traits in temper, emotionality and cognitive style. There i s general agreement that those peculiarities and vulnerabilities find their expression and structure only under a complex interplay of stimulating or impairing environmental influences. Do these genetic factors-or other facto rs-diminish a person's criminal responsibility? There is no difficulty in d iagnosing PDs, but the challenging questions arise in forensic assessments of defendants for criminal responsibility who have a PD. This article discusses the German legal situation and special problems crea ted by the term of "diminished" criminal responsibility. In contrast to the Angle-American legal situation, the German criminal law obliges the court to order an indeterminate forensic-psychiatric confinement, in addition to punishment, if the offender had acted under diminished criminal responsibil ity and is now still considered to be dangerous. The convicted offender rem ains under the control of the criminal court during psychiatric hospitaliza tion. The change from handling the personality disordered offender as a cri minal to handling him as someone with a mental disorder creates a social op tion for extended state interventions, including indeterminate hospitalizat ion. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.