Individual Differences Relate to Support for Insanity and Postpartum Depression Legal Defenses: The Mediating Role of Moral Disengagement

Abstract

Postpartum depression defense (PPDD) is a form of insanity defense often used when mothers harm their children. Although courts have determined that insanity defenses, including PPDD, can be used as legitimate criminal defenses, such defenses are often misunderstood among jurors and laypersons. The current survey of 467 undergraduates examines relationships between individual differences and support for PPDD and the insanity defense. Need for cognition was found to be positively related to support for PPDD and the insanity defense, while legal authoritarianism (LA) was found to be negatively related to support for both defenses. Faith in intuition is negatively related to support for the insanity defense. In this sample, women are more likely than men to support the PPDD, but not the insanity defense. Additionally, relationships between support and both the need for cognition and LA are partially mediated by moral disengagement, which is negatively related to support for PPDD and insanity defenses. These results replicate a model used in different legal contexts. Implications for legal and academic communities are discussed.