Nobody's Child: A Tragedy, a Trial, and a History of the Insanity Defense

Nobody's Child: A Tragedy, a Trial, and a History of the Insanity Defense
Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages : 352
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780393651935
ISBN-13 : 0393651932
Rating : 4/5 (35 Downloads)

Synopsis Nobody's Child: A Tragedy, a Trial, and a History of the Insanity Defense by : Susan Vinocour

A powerful and humane exploration of the history of the "insanity defense," through the story of one poignant case. When a three-year-old child was found with a head wound and other injuries, it looked like an open-and-shut case of second-degree murder. Psychologist and attorney Susan Vinocour agreed to evaluate the defendant, the child's mentally ill and impoverished grandmother, to determine whether she was competent to stand trial. Even if she had caused the child's death, had she realized at the time that her actions were wrong or was she legally "insane"? What followed was anything but an open-and-shut case. Nobody's Child traces the legal definition of "insanity" back to its inception in Victorian Britain nearly two hundred years ago, from when our understanding of the human mind was in its infancy, to today, when questions of race, class, and ability so often determine who is legally "insane" and who is criminally guilty. Vinocour explains how "competency" and "insanity" are creatures of a legal system, not of psychiatric reality, and how, in criminal law, the insanity defense has to often been a luxury of the rich and white. Nobody's Child is a profoundly dignified portrait of injustice in America and a complex examination of the troubling intersection of mental health and the law. When prisons are now the largest institutions for the mentally ill, Vinocour demands that we reckon with our conceptions of "insanity" with clarity, empathy, and responsibility.

Authors and Subjects

Authors and Subjects
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Publisher :
Total Pages : 1084
Release :
ISBN-10 : UBBE:UBBE-00204775
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (75 Downloads)

Synopsis Authors and Subjects by :

Report

Report
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Publisher :
Total Pages : 142
Release :
ISBN-10 : STANFORD:36105027924625
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (25 Downloads)

Synopsis Report by : New York State Library

Annual Report

Annual Report
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Publisher :
Total Pages : 140
Release :
ISBN-10 : MINN:31951000841859Z
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (9Z Downloads)

Synopsis Annual Report by : New York State Library

From 1889 to 1918 the reports consist of the Report of the director and appendixes, which from 1893 include various bulletins issued by the library (Additions; Bibliography; History; Legislation; Library school; Public libraries) These, including the Report of the director, were each issued also separately.

Annual report

Annual report
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 142
Release :
ISBN-10 : BSB:BSB11616701
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (01 Downloads)

Synopsis Annual report by :