Published on 12, July, 2020
Is it moral to punish and put people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Antisocial Personality Disorder with psychopathic features in jails or prisons instead of forensic correctional facilities?
First of all, jails or prisons don't have excellent training to handle those two personality disorders correctly if it is severe or profound, even if a prison psychiatrist or psychologist is trying to help severely mentally ill prisoners fix their thoughts and conduct.
Another issue is that people with severe or profound Narcissistic Personality Disorder or severe or profound Antisocial Personality Disorder with psychopathic features might be legally sane and competent to stand trial. Still, they have this strange nihilistic delusional view of this world. When they commit crimes, many also have a delusion that rules don't apply to them, due to disregard for right and wrong, and also black and withe thinking, with no grounds for the middle ground.
I hope you guys understand where I am coming from with this issue.
It's an interesting question. Culpability should involve awareness of wrongdoing; this is why a wild animal can't be guilty of murder, because it doesn't know any better.
But I don't think you can absolve someone from guilt if they themselves don't comprehend wrongdoing, because we have to protect society from such people. Is it cruel? Yes. But what else can we do.
We also have a concept of age of legal responsibility. In the UK it's 10, I think in Scotland it might be 16. So we think children younger than this don't know what they're doing and shouldn't be held responsible or punished as harshly. In the case of those suffering from severe mental retardation or a childlike mind, should they be punished as adults? It's such a difficult question and so difficult to prove one way or another in court.
But lots of people do get excused from the crimes they commit due to mental illness (diminished responsibility), particularly with things such as psychosis. But the criteria could arguably extend to NPD or ASPD. The law says if you have an inability to:
(a) to understand the nature of your conduct;
(b) to form a rational judgment;
(c) to exercise self-control.
Then you have diminished responsibility.
Could this be true for someone with ASPD and NPD who has a very warped view of the world? For me it's very hard to say. I think most people do not like the behaviour of such people and want them to be punished. They're aware of their actions, they just don't care.
Most violent criminals probably have some kind of issue which means they don't value the lives of others and a low capacity for empathy and are prone to reckless behaviour. I don't think they should be excused from their crimes. If anything, locking them up is what we have to do to protect everyone. Unless there is some way of fixing them, but I don't think there is?
In a very rare case, paedophilia was caused by a brain tumour in a specific part of the brain, and when the tumour was removed the desire to do such things went away. Should such a person be released from jail, since they're no longer a danger? The victim was harmed regardless of whether it was the perpetrator's fault... but in a way they were the victim of the tumour. Were they culpable for their actions?
That is actually a good point.