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In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental functions were "diminished" or impaired.
After first briefly outlining preliminary assumptions about responsibility and criminal justice, this chapter defines diminished capacity's two variants: the mens rea and partial-responsibility variants. It then addresses in depth the justifications and implementation problems for each variant, with special attention to partial responsibility ...
For example, in an example of murder vs. manslaughter, a diminished capacity defense argues that a defendant is incapable of intending to cause a death, so they must have at most caused the death recklessly. Unlike NGRI, the defendant isn’t saying that they are “not guilty”.
Aug 17, 2020 · Summary. Diminished capacity and actuality are partial responsibility defenses, developed in the recognition that the irrationalities, dyscontrol, and compulsions generated by mental abnormalities that lead to criminal offending exist along a spectrum and are rarely all or none phenomena as what is required for the insanity defense. In the ...
- Mohan S. Nair, Robert Weinstock
- 2020
Providing legal services for individuals with diminished capacity in estate planning matters requires awareness of the nature of the incapacity and its effect on the client's judgment and reasoning and the type of legal service requested.
Apr 13, 2017 · Diminished capacity is often included as part of a “mens rea” defense where the defense argues for a lesser degree of culpability (e.g., manslaughter instead of first-degree murder) due to decreased intent.
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What is 'diminished capacity' in forensic psychology?
Diminished capacity refers to two distinct doctrines. The first, known as the mens rea variant, refers to the use of evidence of mental abnormality to negate a mens rea—a mental state such as intent, required by the definition of the crime charged (the mens rea variant).
