Sentencing the partly mad and the partly bad: The case of the hospital order in England and Wales

Abstract

In 1812, after her first meeting with Lord Byron, Lady Caroline Lamb confided to her journal that he was “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” In light of the course of their subsequent relationship, perhaps Lady Caroline Lamb was not entirely lacking in insight; however, her observation does neatly encapsulate the ambiguity that surrounds the whole process of sentencing mentally disordered offenders. Indeed, the mixture of madness, badness and alleged dangerousness creates a remarkably complex brew for sentencers, searching for an appropriate disposition for mentally disordered offenders. As Halleck (1986) comments, in the context of the United States: