Mentally Handicapped Murderer

[Night]

Perhaps they can't treat mental retardation, but they may be able to do something else to prevent future attacks. I'm not a doctor and I would never presume to speak for the medical field. If you have better information, feel free to go with it.

The man would need care from a psychiatrist or psychologist, to examine and treat his violence in a non-pharmacological way. This means he does not need to be placed in a mental institution, which are more geared to get the mentally handicapped stabilized on medications which the main this example would not need.

People don't realize this, but the modern American mental hospital is not a place where someone is meant to live. Ideally, they are a place where people with mental issues who are psychotic become stabilized and able to communicate and act appropriately. The modern American mental institution is not a place geared to become a home. It is a medical facility only.

They are, in my experience.

Yep! I once overdosed on drugs, and because my tolerance was already high, I had enough drugs in my system to kill a horse (the ER doctor told me he literally meant it was actually enough to kill a horse). Sinc I had such high levels in my system they assumed it was a suicide attempt and sent me to a psychiatric facility where they normally send people who are suicidal (which I was not, I was simply a junkie at the time). However since I was sober the whole time there, I thought it was an interesting place, I got to see a lot of very disturbed people. It WAS expensive, even with excellent health insurance.

Sounds like a fine plan, but I'm not so clear on how these would be different from mental wards, apart from being "specialized". If they get a notion to commit homicide, whether in a specialized facility or with their parental guardians, you still need some way to stop them. Do you just keep them away from any material that remotely suggests violence?

I am suggesting a facility, yes. But it would not need doctors and nurses (which are VERY expensive). It would need a few guards and psychologists. Maybe throw in a psychiatrist. It would not look like a jail or a mental institution. Families could visit, if there is indeed family. The state would cover those who cannot afford it. It would be geared to treat people without the use of little-understood psychotropic drugs. That's my point, a full blown psychiatric ward is overkill for people like the man in my example.

Also, I think states should have different facilities for people with different problems. There should be facilities for people with schizophrenia, mood disorders, personality disorders, suicidal depressives, and facilities (like the one I imagined above) for the mentally retarded. Each type of facility would be specifically geared to treat their patients. This would be much more effective, and in the long run cheaper, than the throw-all-the-crazies in a single building type of institution we have today.

[Cruella]

Some of you are confusing mental illness into this scenario. Is the handicapped murder educated enough to know right from wrong?

[Night]

Cruella, mental retardation is not an illness. And to answer your question, no, he did not know right from wrong. He was emulating something he saw on television. The mentally retarded learn to mimic normal people in order to fit in. When they see a 'normal' person do it, they want to do it too, because it is what normal people do. Stick a mentally retarded guy in a room with a remote, and after watching enough TV, he will emulate what he sees on TV.

This is not in any way an attack on television content. I think we simply need to do something more for those with mental issues, instead of sticking them in a room with a remote. It is a disturbingly sad and all-too-common scenario. Mentally retarded people are without a doubt the single sweetest people I've ever met. They deserve better than what they're currently getting.

[SoylentGreen]

Cruella, mental retardation is not an illness. And to answer your question, no, he did not know right from wrong.

Then in answer to your question, He should not be punished.

He was emulating something he saw on television. The mentally retarded learn to mimic normal people in order to fit in. When they see a 'normal' person do it, they want to do it too, because it is what normal people do. Stick a mentally retarded guy in a room with a remote, and after watching enough TV, he will emulate what he sees on TV.

Yes, but exactly how much rape and kill porno must he watch before going out and doing it himself? And where did he get the porn from? Was it a set up, could some one have been using him as a murder weapon?

T

his is not in any way an attack on television content. I think we simply need to do something more for those with mental issues, instead of sticking them in a room with a remote. It is a disturbingly sad and all-too-common scenario. Mentally retarded people are without a doubt the single sweetest people I've ever met. They deserve better than what they're currently getting.

I agree.

[Jem]

Assuming that that man in question is incapable of differentiating between right and wrong, sending him to prison probably wouldn't do much good; aside from the fact that he may have difficulty learning what he did was wrong, a mentally handicapped person spending 10 years or more in prison would most likely only harm him severely, and thus is not a constructive option. But then again, a psychiatric hospital may not be the best option either if it doesn't produce a constructive means of rehabilitating the criminal.

Perhaps then there should be prison wings exclusively reserved for instances like these wher the criminal in question was unable to fully know the wrongness of their actions. Or alternatively, one could just mercy kill such a person, as means of justice for what he did and means of mercy to end any suffering that he may endure in a prison or hopspital, although many would find such an option immoral and undesirable (btw, I am not advocating such an option, just pointing it out).

[hwyangel]

I believe in labor, retarded or not. Young men with too much energy and too much time should be working. Not meaning in society.

[Anguspure]

I believe in labor, retarded or not. Young men with too much energy and too much time should be working. Not meaning in society.

lts funny because my earlier response was one that l believe applies irrespective of mental ability.

If an offender is removed to a community that is beneficial to the offenders perception and behaviour so as to prevent a repeat of the offense or indeed any offense (if that were possible) then that would be a better outcome than one that would result from incarceration in an even harder and punishing environment than that found in the community from which the offender committed his crime.

Hard labour is yet another stereotypical response. In terms of positive social conditioning? Works for some and not for others.

[pahl]

Sufficiently young children does not serve prison time for their crimes. If it was possible for an 7-year old to perform the same crimes would we not try to prevent more crimes and search for a way to help the child adjust? I presume that practice is in place because of the childs lacking understanding of the world and underdeveloped brain.

The situations seem to be the same to me. Treat one as the other in my opinon. And if there is no good way of fixing the problem simply stick with further prevention.

[Angry Citizen]

Say a mentally handicapped man, with an IQ of 67, rapes and accidentally murders a woman he found in an apartment next door to his own. He did not plan it in advance, and subsequently claims he was acting out something he saw on television.

What do you believe should happen to him?

Fry 'em.

[pbxilixdq]

Cruella, mental retardation is not an illness. And to answer your question, no, he did not know right from wrong. He was emulating something he saw on television. The mentally retarded learn to mimic normal people in order to fit in. When they see a 'normal' person do it, they want to do it too, because it is what normal people do. Stick a mentally retarded guy in a room with a remote, and after watching enough TV, he will emulate what he sees on TV.

This is not in any way an attack on television content. I think we simply need to do something more for those with mental issues, instead of sticking them in a room with a remote. It is a disturbingly sad and all-too-common scenario. Mentally retarded people are without a doubt the single sweetest people I've ever met. They deserve better than what they're currently getting.

It's true mentally retarded people emulate others, but saying they're so useless in this regard that they cant even decide whether or not a woman crying, screaming, kicking, begging, and grimacing is bad or good is extremely insulting to mentally retarded people and untrue. Mentally retarded DO know when something is THAT bad.

Not knowing 'right from wrong' is insanity. Someone who is 'criminally insane' can't tell the difference between right and wrong.

Someone who is mentally retarded knows what violence is, what hurting is, what crying means.

They'd likely know it on the TV too. Unless it was a totally warped show, the rapist probably was a mean person.

So to recap, WOW. Offensive and not true.

With that said I still don't think they should be punished equally. Chances are the person in your example IS in fact a product of his environment. All people are to some degree, but mentally retarded people are more susceptible to this so it's not fair to punish them equally when the society has a part to blame. And because mentally retarded people are more susceptible to their environments, all available punishments for that crime are actually way harsher than if given to a mentally normal person. I don't think a facility currently exists that could adequately fit the crime.

[Zeebadee]

What do we do with pit bulls that attack livestock? Euthanasia.

[pbxilixdq]

What do we do with pit bulls that attack livestock? Euthanasia.

You euthanize an animal, word doesn't spread across that species. Pit bulls don't live in fear of euthanasia.

You euthanize a human, word does spread. And suddenly mentally retarded people live with that fear and with that disconnect they will feel knowing how people like them are treated in this society.