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?
Turning your sacred cows into steak.
"Reality is for people who can't cope with drugs" - Robin Williams
Quote by: arX
He would probably be placed in a secure psychiatric hospital … which seems about right.
This.
Why? So they can medicate him to solve a problem they can't fix? Why stick him in an expensive psychiatric hospital when it won't do anyone any good?
Turning your sacred cows into steak.
"Reality is for people who can't cope with drugs" - Robin Williams
A person of that IQ could not survive without a custodian / guardian. If he is not responsible for his actions then who is? I would see no point in sending him back to the same system that just failed him.
Prevention, at the very least. And why do you assume the whole medical profession would be helpless?
He would be placed in a hospital rather than to go on trial and face prison if it was declared that he was unfit to plea. There would probably be no reason to medicate him unless to sedate him if he was a danger to himself or others.
Soylent, I agree completely. A mentally handicapped person needs a guardian. If not family, then the state should set up a program to help mentally challenged individuals. In my opinion, situations like this could easily be prevented if the state spent more money on social services instead of bombing third world countries.
Turning your sacred cows into steak.
"Reality is for people who can't cope with drugs" - Robin Williams
They cannot currently cure or even treat mental retardation. Thus sticking him in a medical facility (a mental ward) is a huge waste of resources, as I imagine they are very expensive. Mental wards should not be a place to stick undesirables. They function best as temporary places to stabilize people, usually people in psychosis. I think there should be separate facilities to care for people of different needs. The state should provide facilities specialized in housing people with mental retardation (if they don't have family to help them), schizophrenia, etc.
In the long run, providing individualized facilities for these people will save money. Less emergency room visits by indigent people who desperately need help, prisons, etc.
Turning your sacred cows into steak.
"Reality is for people who can't cope with drugs" - Robin Williams
l beleive the man is guilty of manslaughter in the first instance and also guilty of rape (assuming that there is clear evidence that the woman resisted the sexual advance).
lrrespective of his mental ability an attempt should be made to convince the man of the gravity of the crime that has been committed.
Mentally handicapped people are usually strongly receptive to coersion, and will more often follow the example of those with whom they live rather than act in a vacuum.
Clearly the community in which the offender is living is not positive and therefore this person needs to be removed to a community that will have a positive effect on his life so that the behaviour is not repeated.
This maybe seen as a sentence for the offender that will only complete its term in the event that an opportunity arises for a more positive change of circumstance for all concerned.
Removal to a prison or psychiatric institution that is incapable of having a positive influence on the individual is worse than uselessand will certainly result in the negative consequences of this crime being greatly exagerated.
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.
They are, in my experience.
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?
Amen to that! My thoughts exactly.
Turning your sacred cows into steak.
"Reality is for people who can't cope with drugs" - Robin Williams
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