In recent years, the crime rate of mental patients is not small, which threatens the life safety of people around. Therefore, this paper analyzes the crime of mental patients in order to solve some problems in reality.
Keywords: preventive measures for mental patients with mental illness
In recent years, the crime rate of mental patients in China has increased year by year, which has reached a point that cannot be ignored. Mental patients commit crimes with cruel means, great personal danger and serious consequences, which pose a serious threat to the personal and property safety of people around them. Tragedy after tragedy has made many people seriously dissatisfied with the relevant provisions of the criminal law on the crime of mental patients, and think that the criminal law should keep pace with the times and treat mental patients equally, including the same penalties as ordinary people.
First, the current situation of mental patients' crime
On the morning of April 29th, 2004, a vicious injury occurred in Yanggudui Village Primary School in Qinyu Township, Tanchang County. An adult man rushed into the classroom with a kitchen knife in each hand, seriously injuring 15 students and two farmers. The perpetrator Yuan was later diagnosed as mentally ill. On July 26th, 2004, China International Airlines hijacked a plane. It was later confirmed that the hijacker Yang Jinsong suffered from intermittent mental illness and had a history of mental illness. On July 27 of the same year, a hostage-taking incident occurred in Changchun, and the suspect Cui suffered from intermittent mental illness; On August 4th, Xu Heping, a 5 1 year-old doorman in the kindergarten of the First Hospital of Peking University, chopped 15 children and 3 teachers with a kitchen knife. Afterwards, it was found that Xu suffered from severe paranoid schizophrenia. On the same day, it happened in Chongzhou, Sichuan? Sick grandson, grandma with a blade? Tragedy: Shen Qilong, a villager with familial mental illness, killed his 85-year-old grandmother.
Liu Renwen, a researcher at the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, once went to a county to investigate and heard that there were 16 murders in this county this year, of which 30% were committed by mental patients. According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization in 2003, more than 83 million people in China suffer from various mental disorders. Experts predict that after entering the 2 1 century, all kinds of mental health problems in China will become more prominent. At present, China is in a period of social transformation. When some people are faced with unprecedented survival pressures such as employment, marriage, children and old-age care, their sense of helplessness and frustration often erupt? Introduction? . One? Fuse? Unexpectedly, ignite this in an instant? Explosive? . Whether we like it or not, we are entering ruthlessness. The age of mental illness? , is facing the severe challenge of mental health problems. In this context, the phenomenon that mental patients commit harmful behaviors will inevitably increase.
Second, the questions raised.
The frequent occurrence of major vicious homicide cases in recent years is the best explanation, which not only causes people's panic, seriously destroys social order, but also constantly impacts people's hearts. Faced with fresh and innocent lives being deprived for no reason, people can't help asking: What is mental illness? What are the reasons why mental patients commit crimes? For mental patients who cause serious injuries, punishment is not applicable. How to achieve the goal of retribution and prevention and punishment? What countermeasures should the government take to effectively control and prevent it?
Third, mental illness and its pathology.
Mental illness is a brain dysfunction under the influence of various internal and external factors, which is manifested as mental activity disorder. Specifically, it includes cognitive disorder, emotional disorder, will disorder, intellectual disorder, behavioral disorder and other different manifestations. The normal sign of human spiritual activities is the integrity of spiritual activities and the unity with the surrounding environment. If this integrity and unity are hindered and destroyed to varying degrees, then the individual's psychological activities will be defective, and then there will be a reflection of mental illness, that is, the normal psychological activities of the individual can not be carried out smoothly. In this state, the behavior guided by psychology must be abnormal.
(1) psychiatry? Mental illness? concept
1. The broad concept of mental illness
In psychiatry, people broadly define? Mental illness? This term is used to refer to various diseases with mental activity disorder as the main clinical manifestation. That is, various mental activity disorders are called? Mental illness? Equivalent in meaning to. Mental illness? Or? Mental disorder? What is it called only from the degree of serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia and paranoia? Severe mental illness? Neurosis, personality disorder and other minor mental disorders are called neurosis. Mild mental illness? .
2. The narrow concept of mental illness
In modern psychiatry, mental illness? With what? Mental illness? Or? Mental disorder? Are different concepts. ? Mental illness? Or? Mental disorder? As a general concept, it is the general name of a kind of diseases caused by brain dysfunction, which is mainly manifested in mental activities such as cognition, emotion, will and behavior. According to its nature and degree, it can be generally divided into three groups of diseases: (1) psychosis (including organic psychosis and other psychosis); (2) Neurotic disorder, personality disorder and other non-psychotic mental disorders; (3) Mental retardation. And then what? Mental illness? It is a general concept and belongs to a group of mental diseases, that is, mental disorders with specific pathological basis and abnormal mental activities lasting for a certain period of time.
(2) In criminal law? Mental illness? concept
According to the passport view of forensic psychiatry in China, mental disorders are also called psychosis and psychosis, including two kinds of diseases: first, psychosis, including the following serious mental disorders: schizophrenia and paranoid psychosis; Severe mental retardation, or mental retardation to moderate (stupid) or more serious (such as idiots); The state of the mental system, including hysterical insanity and pathological semi-wakefulness, pathological passion and transient insanity, are four rare exceptions. Second, non-psychotic mental disorders, such as neurosis, personality disorder, sexual perversion and so on.
The formation of mental illness is generally related to personal experience, life situation, encounter, heredity and other factors. In daily life, mental patients sometimes do harm to themselves and others' personal, property or society, and even commit crimes. In fact, it is the separation of the integrity and unity of individuals adapting to the social environment. Mental patients have lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong and control their own behavior, and under the control of mental diseases such as hallucinations and delusions, most of them have no criminal responsibility.
Four, the basic reasons for the crime of mental patients
(A) the reasons of social environment
Social environment includes all kinds of negative factors in macro-social environment and micro-social environment, such as decadent ideas of the exploiting class, traditional and foreign low-level culture, bad social atmosphere, misleading media and backward words and deeds of others, which are closely related to the crime of mental patients. First of all, these negative factors will have a subtle influence on mental patients, making them easy to commit crimes. Secondly, these negative factors can cultivate the criminal consciousness of mental patients and become the direct cause of mental patients' crime.
(B) the reasons for economic conditions
Some mental patients have poor working ability, it is not easy to find a job, there is no fixed or meager economic income, and some mental patients who have jobs themselves lose their jobs because of mental illness. Some are forced by life, and theft and robbery may occur. Low economic status may also lead to dissatisfaction and anti-social consciousness of some mental patients. Some people form a strong rebellious attitude, despise social order and often make trouble. Others are ruthless, indifferent, easily angry when provoked, often using violence and fierce means.
(C) the reasons for the level of education
Some research reports have found that a considerable number of mental offenders have a low level of education. It is common for mental patients to have no education or a low level of education because they have few learning opportunities or are born with mental retardation. The low level of education will inevitably make the mental patients' ability to distinguish right from wrong, pros and cons unable to develop normally, and it is easy to degenerate and degenerate under the influence of bad social factors. The low level of education also makes it difficult for mental patients to form a higher level of interest, preferring sensory stimulation and material interests, and because of their own conditions, they often adopt illegal and immoral methods to realize their desires.
Five, the main characteristics and deep reasons of the crime of mental patients in China.
(A) the main features
First, the object of infringement is random: the object of mental patients' criminal behavior is very random, and they often hit whoever they see, and the victims are often caught off guard and suddenly encounter disasters.
Second, the revenge mentality is extremely strong: because of illness, mental patients may take reckless and unscrupulous revenge actions against people who are slightly contradictory to themselves, and will never give up until they reach their goals.
Third, there is great personal danger: relevant people have made statistics on the crimes committed by mental patients, and found that 9 1% of them were killed, with an average of 1.85 for each mental patient under supervision, with a maximum of 7 people killed.
Fourthly, there are many phenomena that endanger the society again: after committing a crime, many mental patients are not criminally responsible according to the criminal law, and they are not sent to designated hospitals for compulsory treatment, but return to society, resulting in more and more mental patients who endanger the society again.
(B) the root cause
First, the guardian's guardianship is not in place. According to the author's understanding, if there is a mental patient in a family, all members of this family will bear a heavy burden like rolling in the deep, needless to say, the quality of life and psychological pain, and it is difficult to guarantee economic and personal safety. The huge cost of psychiatric treatment is beyond the reach of ordinary families. After treatment, the condition is slightly controlled, and stopping the drug will cause the recurrence of the condition. The longer the time, the more difficult the treatment is. There is also the patient's uncooperative. Almost all mental patients will not admit that they are sick. Once out of the hospital's compulsory treatment and drug treatment, they will even retaliate against their loved ones who have treated him, making them feel afraid that their illness will recur after re-treatment. When mental patients refuse treatment, they will become ill more and more frequently. At this time, there are two dilemmas: mental patients have no money to go to the hospital for treatment, and patients at home do not cooperate. Thereby forming various hidden dangers.
Mental patients nowadays are not as unkempt and ragged as people think. They look no different from normal people. Some people even have good education and decent jobs, and they are mixed among us normal people. If there is no obvious infringement, it is difficult for people to distinguish. Often when the result appears, the tragedy has already happened.
Second, the government responsibility is not in place. Insufficient understanding of the harmfulness and seriousness of violent crimes committed by mental patients, and insufficient attention to the legitimate rights and interests of this vulnerable group of mental patients; The lack of financial resources also makes it impossible for many local governments to provide adequate treatment expenses for mental patients.
Third, the relevant laws on the management and protection of mental patients in China are imperfect and lack of detailed rules for implementation. Because taking compulsory treatment measures for mental patients involves the deprivation of citizens' personal freedom, the conditions for taking compulsory treatment measures, the start of procedures, and the trial organs of cases. It must be clearly stipulated by law. Therefore, governments and judicial organs at all levels often face institutional difficulties when dealing with crimes committed by mental patients.
Six, the theoretical basis of criminal punishment and prevention of mental patients.
(A) the view of the criminal classical school
The criminal classical school believes that for mental patients, because they can't exercise their free will, the behavior in a state of mental confusion is not a crime, and it is not a rational behavior at all. Therefore, mental illness and crime are strictly distinguished, and the means of disposal are also different. In their view, the perpetrators of harmful behaviors are either mental patients or criminals. If he is a mental patient, he can no longer be regarded as a criminal, and his treatment has nothing to do with criminal justice, so they should not be forced into a mental hospital; If he is a criminal, then his treatment has nothing to do with a mental hospital, and he should go to prison.
(B) the view of criminal positivism school
The school of criminal positivism believes that mental patients, like others, are dominated by physiological conditions, natural phenomena and social environment. His behavior is completely determined by psychological motives and various internal and external conditions. Therefore, mental patients who have committed crimes should belong to criminals. Its main representatives are Cesare Cesare Lombroso and Philip.
1. Cesare Cesare Lombroso
Through empirical research, Cesare Cesare Lombroso believes that although some mental patients may know the criminal nature of their actions before and after committing crimes, and even know their special legal status, those mental patients who commit crimes under the stimulation of pathological factors during the psychotic episode lack or partially lack the ability to be responsible. He believes that many criminals and those who are thought to have committed crimes are insane. For these people, imprisonment is unfair, release is dangerous, and some intermediate measures that are detrimental to morality and safety cannot solve their problems.
Cesare Cesare Lombroso believes that only the establishment of criminal mental hospitals can overcome the persistent conflict between trial, justice and social security. Through permanent imprisonment in criminal mental hospitals, the inheritance of crimes and criminal gangs can be stopped and the formation of gangs can be prevented; It can prevent recidivism, reduce litigation costs, and thus reduce new crimes often caused by imitation; It can make criminals who want to impersonate mental patients give up the idea of impersonation, and it can also prevent those defense lawyers from taking advantage of it. Cesare Cesare Lombroso suggested that when insanity is suspected, the jury should be composed of citizens, judges and psychiatrists? . Cesare Cesare Lombroso constructed the reform measures as follows: According to the law, two mental hospitals for criminals with a capacity of at least 300 beds should be established as soon as possible, and seven areas for holding mental patients should be set up in prisons in major areas of China. ?
2. philosophy (short for philosophy)
Philip believes that although the law holds that mental patients have no moral responsibility, mental hospitals are still established to supervise mental patients. Under the current system that does not guarantee the prevention of mental patients with criminal tendencies, the cost of managing them far exceeds the losses caused by these people. Philip ignored other criticisms made by some people about the cruel scene. Experience shows that in mental hospitals, criminals are classified according to their tendency under the guidance of managers who have professional knowledge and can prevent the outbreak of atrocities. Therefore, the prediction that it is difficult for criminal mental hospitals to avoid prisoners' atrocities is unfounded. Philip's social defense has been highly valued, so that most classical criminologists now accept the proposal of setting up a mental hospital for criminals.
The debate between the two factions ended in the victory of the criminal positivism school. Subsequently, more countries set up mental hospitals for criminals. By the beginning of the 20th century, it has become an important part of the public security punishment system to forcibly detain mentally retarded criminals who have no criminal responsibility. In the second half of the 20th century, with the development of psychiatry, the treatment and medical control of mental disorders were emphasized in the treatment of criminals with mental disorders without criminal responsibility. In some countries' public security punishment systems, the concept of compulsory asylum has been replaced by the more humane concept of compulsory medical treatment.
Seven, the prevention and countermeasures of the crime of mental patients in China.
(a) the improvement of criminal law and related laws and regulations.
First, in the new era when China has entered a well-off society in an all-round way, the state should invest a lot of financial and human resources to build a number of mental medical places with better hardware and software facilities. All mental patients staying in such places will be treated by the state free of charge, and they will be allowed to leave the hospital only after a special team composed of psychologists and physiologists gives an evaluation result that will not endanger society again. This kind of investment is completely worthwhile, and the income is greater than the expenditure.
Second, although such medical places are highly humane, in principle, it should be based on the premise that mental patients have committed criminal acts because of personal freedom restrictions. For those who have serious accident-causing tendencies and signs, their families or guardians shall be ordered to strictly guard and treat them. If their family members or guardians can't do this, or if such mental patients have no family members or proper guardians and live on the streets, they should consider taking them to such places for treatment.
Third, to decide whether a mental patient can enter or leave such places, a special group of psychological and physiological experts should put forward their opinions and the court will make a judicial decision.
Fourth, mental patients found in prisons and other places should be transferred to such places for treatment in time.
(2) The government should attach great importance to improving the social security system.
Article 18 of China's criminal law stipulates: "When necessary, medical treatment shall be compulsory by the government." This legal provision clarifies the measures that the government can take against mental patients when they endanger society, but it is not feasible in practice. Because the government's health prevention and control mechanism does not include the investigation and statistics of mental patients, in essence, the government itself does not have a specific functional department to manage mental patients, let alone treatment. Therefore, this provision of the law is only a mere formality and has little practical significance. To fundamentally solve the problem of mental patients, the government needs to do:
1. Accelerate the legislative process and protect the legitimate rights and interests of patients.
The provisions of Article 18 of China's Criminal Law do not mean that the crime of mental patients is not legally recognized as a crime, but only that mental patients do not bear criminal responsibility because they have no capacity for responsibility. Mental patients are protected by law because of their defects in consciousness and will, and for humanitarian reasons, which conforms to the principle of criminal responsibility in criminal law. However, putting the perpetrators back into society will not only bring any psychological comfort to the victims, but more importantly, it will greatly threaten the interests of other members of society. The shortcomings of this approach can be seen. First of all, most crimes committed by mental patients are violent crimes such as murder, which are very harmful to society and personal danger. The blind laissez-faire attitude of the law is not conducive to social security and stability; Secondly, the legal protection of mental patients only stays at the level of not taking responsibility afterwards, which can not fundamentally protect the legitimate rights and interests of mental patients, making the solution of this serious problem of mental patients' crime lose a powerful guarantee mechanism; Finally, the provisions of the law are too abstract, difficult to grasp in practice and lack of operability. To solve the above problems, we need to put mental illness legislation on the agenda, speed up the process of mental health legislation, protect the political rights, labor rights, property rights, personal rights, marriage and family rights of mental patients in the form of law, and stipulate government medical measures, expenses and other related aspects, as well as legal responsibilities, so as to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of mental patients.
2. Improve the security system and provide good treatment conditions.
The nature of mental illness determines that patients must adhere to long-term treatment. In some economically underdeveloped areas, patients' families can't treat patients at all, and the government's "compulsory" medical care is stipulated by law. Who will pay the bill? Where is the treatment? If these problems are not solved and mental patients are not thoroughly treated, it will be difficult to prevent the recurrence of wounding incidents and tragedies. Therefore, the key to solve this problem is to improve the social security system, provide patients with good treatment conditions and treatment environment from the security mechanism, and ensure that patients can get timely and long-term treatment. The treatment cost of mental patients is very high, and quite a few patients' families can't afford it, and hospitals can't pay it all. This requires government departments to increase investment, or set up a special relief fund for mental patients to solve the treatment costs.
(3) the society should vigorously help and carry out love rescue operations.
The treatment of mental patients is expensive and takes a long time, so it is very difficult to rely solely on the strength of family and government for comprehensive rehabilitation treatment. The society should also give full play to its advantages of wide coverage and easy organization and support, carry out love rescue actions, and mobilize social forces to support the rehabilitation of mental patients by developing public welfare undertakings or organizing public welfare activities, so that mental patients can feel more social care while receiving treatment and accelerate the rehabilitation process.
In this way, the mentally ill are lucky, the society is lucky and the people are lucky.
Precautions:
Liu renwen Mental patients with harmful behaviors should not be released at once. Omit cn/zywn44/call47806.htm2003.438+00.29.
Xin Huang. China should strengthen the frontier research of severe mental illness. Science times. 2006 (6)。
Wei Jianxing, Zhang Xuelin. Criminal psychology. Nankai university press. Page 204, 2003.
Tall. Introduction to criminal law. Higher Education Press, 2006. Page 22 1.
Liu Baiju. Mental disorders and crime. Social science literature publishing house. 2000. Page 325.
The law is the right stone. The rise of criminal mental hospital and its prospect in China. http://blog。 Omit/fzjsh/EFP _ bl _1000441977. aspx2005 .
Caesar? Cesare Cesare Lombroso. Translated by Huang Feng. About criminals. China Legal Publishing House. 2009. Page14,376,392.
[Italy] Enrico? Philip. Translated by Guo Jian 'an. Sociology of crime. Chinese people's public security university press. 290 (2005).
Liu renwen Economic analysis under criminal integration. Chinese people's public security university press. 2007 edition. Page 103.
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