Misconceptions About The Insanity Defense

The insanity defense is a controversial legal defense which states that a defendant should not be found culpable of a crime on the basis of insanity. The main factor that makes this defense so controversial is the difficulty in interpreting what exactly should be defined as insanity. To add the distortion, many different states also have completely different rules and attitudes towards the insanity defense. Many misconceptions about the insanity defense exist throughout society. For starters, the term insanity is strictly a legal term, not a psychological or medical term. Although various movies and television shows portray the insanity defense as a commonly used and successful defense, the opposite is true in reality. Even though statistics