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An acceptable defense Essay Insanity: Insanity defense has been considered by many as a â€Å"loophole† in the law allowing a number of guilty people to be set free. However, this so-called â€Å"loophole† does rarely set people free of criminal charges. Moreover, most of the cases involving insanity defense are murder cases. Many scholars, judges, attorneys and clinicians are said to be divided concerning the definition of insanity. In reality, though, it is not possible for them to be truly divided concerning the definition of insanity seeing that clinicians today have modernized means of determining a person’s mental state by means of psychological testing and interviews. What is more, psychologists are aware that there are neurological processes affecting a person’s mental state. Hence, brain scans can easily be used to understand the physiological condition of an individual charged with murder. Even the history of insanity will be made available through such brain scans, seeing that there is a genuine difference between the neurological processes of people showing abnormal and normal behavior. Therefore, scholars, judges, and attorneys must know that their understanding of the definition of insanity is irrelevant if clinicians are available with scientific evidence of insanity of an individual charged with murder. Given that psychological testing too is scientific, there should be no â€Å"loophole† whatsoever in this area. As a matter of fact, insanity is an acceptable defense. Eric Michael Clark shot a police officer to death because he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and believed that aliens were stalking him. According to the law of Arizona concerning insanity defense, the man had to prove with â€Å"clear and convincing† evidence that he was too mentally ill to know that he was wrong to murder an innocent police offer. The Supreme Court got involved in Clark’s case. Fortunately, the man was backed by the American Psychiatric Association in addition to the American Psychological Association – two entities based on true scientific principles. Most states of America have differing laws regarding insanity defense. Now with the support of both the American Psychiatric Association as well as the American Psychological Association – who believe in helping out mentally ill individuals that have been charged with murder although their mental health is not in their control – it is hoped that the states of America will work on a single law on insanity defense in order to make the â€Å"loophole† in the law completely vanish. This single law would also make insanity defense cases more straightforward than before. After all, abnormal psychology is a science which has made it clear that there is an illness called paranoid schizophrenia, and there are many people suffering from illusions, delusions, and hallucinations. To doubt that these people are ill is, in fact, insanity as well as a sin. This is because we will be depriving of treatment a lot of mentally ill folks if we do not even believe that they are mentally ill. And, what if these people enter jails to commit more murders? What if they kill themselves in prison after they have been unlawfully charged with crime? Whose responsibility would that be? In point of fact, mentally ill people require immediate healing instead of punishment. Besides, putting them through court trials may be worsening their mental condition. Many people who oppose the insanity defense have assumed that mental illness is a myth, and that those who label others as mentally ill are actually imposing violence and control on people. Thomas Ssasz argued that psychologists and psychiatrists use such labels only to make political and ethical decisions. It can be argued, however, that people who are unaware of the scientific basis of abnormal behavior are ignorant at best. Such people are the reason why books on the history of abnormal psychology claim that in the olden times people killed numerous mentally ill people simply because they were mentally ill. There was no treatment for such people, and nobody cared enough to stand for their right to be treated. Slowly but surely, future generations began to believe in the reality of mental illness. ‘Humane treatment’ of the mentally ill was suggested as a cure. Today, however, we are abusing the principles of ‘humane treatment’ by putting the mentally ill people through prolonged court trials. It would be best, therefore, for society to acknowledge that first of all, psychology is a science just as much as biology; and psychologists and psychiatrists are qualified to determine the mental condition of an individual. If, in fact, mental illness were a myth, the Supreme Court and everybody else involved in insanity defense trials would have worked on also closing down mental hospitals as well as the clinics of the well-educated psychologists and psychiatrists, who happen to know their science more than lawmakers would ever be expected to understand psychology. The fact that the government has not closed down psychiatric clinics and mental hospitals shows that society at large does instinctively believe in the reality of mental illness and realizes how painful it can be. Hence, it is utterly useless to argue against the insanity defense. Bibliography Lane, Charles. â€Å"Supreme Court to Review Insanity Defense. † Washington Post. April 20, 2006. â€Å"The Insanity Defense,† Cyber Essays, http://www. cyberessays. com/Politics/126. htm, Accessed 4 May 2007. â€Å"The Insanity Goes On,† Crime Library (2007), http://www. crimelibrary. com/criminal_mind/psychology/insanity/11. html, Accessed 4 May 2007.