Konstantinas Daškevičius, Jelena Daškevičienė
Abstract
In improving the modern law, increasing its humanistic potential, overcoming the traditional formalistic-bureaucratic nature of law, its apathy, reducing the psychologically traumatising effect for persons with psychological disorders, the diminished responsibility norm was put into force in 2000. However, it is seldom realised in the Lithuanian forensic psychiatry evaluation practice, while it is applied to persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders even more seldom – only in 10 cases out of 541 in 3 years. According to the data of our study, as many as 84% of 223 (100%) responsible persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders meet the diminished responsibility criteria. However, the multiannual systemic evaluation of psychological state of the person under the investigation is not referred to when carrying out the forensic psychiatric evaluation on persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and instead clinical biological, psychological personality, and medical social evaluation is referred to, while the most prominence is given to retrospective determination of psyche disorder depth at the moment of the criminal offence. The data of the study shows that from the legal aspect the psychopathology, which manifests in the inclusive whole and can consolidate it, is especially significant to persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders in non-psychotic states. This in turn means that the integration of separate psychopathologic phenomena may limit a person’s behavioural freedom in a specific situation. Hence, the harmonisation analysis of indistinct pathology elements plays an important role in the evaluation.
Keyword(s): forensic psychiatry evaluation in criminal cases; diminished responsibility.
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2016.001
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