Is Insanity a Demeaning Defense? Examining the Ethics of Offender Pathologization through the Lens of the Classics

Abstract

This article considers the question: is the insanity defence demeaning to the accused and if it is how should actors in the criminal justice system, defence counsel in particular, take into consideration the self-respect interest of the accused in advising on which defence to advance at trial? To explore this question I draw on two literary texts which show the defence as demeaning: Don Quixote de la Mancha by Cervantes and Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky as well as two texts which show insanity as an honour or face-saving defence: Homer's Iliad and Shakespeare's Hamlet.