Wednesday 20 April 2016

The Role Of A Forensic Psychiatrist Is To Serve As An Expert Witness In Court

By Sandra Gray


The education and training of this individual is threefold. He or she is a medical doctor. He continues training as a psychiatrist. Thirdly, he trains to answer questions about psychiatric classifications as related to the law. The forensic psychiatrist determines whether someone is fit to stand trial or not.

The standards for proving legal insanity are more stringent than those required in a non-legal diagnosis. First the alleged offenders condition is taken into consideration. Next it must be proven that he was not capable of judging right from wrong when he committed the crime.

For example, when a schizophrenic is medicated properly, he may seem relatively in touch with reality. But, when the medication stops, his judgement disappears. Unsupervised, he does not think he needs the medicine. It is not true. Without the medication, he is once again not in touch with reality.

The alleged has his sanity judged as legally sane or insane. The psychiatrist advises the judge as to how to rule after his evaluation. His opinion is based on the mental state of the accused at the time he committed the crime being adjudicated.

This will, in the majority and perhaps all of the cases, be a violent crime. It may range from sexual assault to first degree murder. This expert is protecting the rights of the accused. He is also protecting the public from having a dangerous predator loose on the street.

The schizophrenic wears a mantle of normalcy when he is under the proper medication. The caveat is that, when unsupervised, he is unlikely to continue taking the pills. Gradually, he will return to the dangerous predator he was before starting on the medication.

The psychiatrist testifies in court under oath. He has had numerous interviews with the alleged criminal. He presents his qualified opinion without considering which attorney it supports. It is true though that the defense attorney only hires him as an expert witness if he supports innocence. Conversely, the prosecution hires him if he supports a verdict of guilty.

The judge receives a report detailing the findings. He and the jury are the only people the witness is supposed to influence. The judge relies on his expert opinion to guide him in passing sentence because his own expertise is in the law.

The judge has guidelines as to the number of years in prison he can sentence a criminal offender to for a specific crime. The psychiatrist has mental health guidelines. His diagnosis of legal competency must comply with those.

To be legally insane, the accused must have been incapable of realizing the consequence of the crime he committed. The wrongness of the act must be unrealized due to mental incapacity. His mental capacity to understand right from wrong must be compromised. If the judge or psychiatrist do not determine the truth, the public can be put in danger in the future. Dangerous predators have been released to prey on innocent victims again.




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