Insanity and the Law: Various Rules Regarding the Insanity Defense and Which Rule for Judging Legal Insanity is Most Useful Today.
Lisa E. Thomason
ITT Technical Institute, Criminology
The various rules used for determining insanity are the M’Naghten, the Irresistible Impulse Test, the Durham rule, substantial-capacity test, Brawner rule, and the guilty but mentally ill (GBMI) rule. They range from completely mentally incapacitated to mentally ill but can possible be treated with psychiatric treatment. Even though the courts still use all of the above rules, I find the GBMI rule to be the most useful. My theory behind this is that during a trial the defendant will usually say what they think the courts want to