Describe the three main tests of insanity

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The right-wrong test focuses on reason. The test, sometimes called the M'Naughten rule, comes from a famous English case. In 1843, Daniel M'Naughten had the paranoid delusion that the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, had masterminded a conspiracy to kill him. M'Naughten shot at Peel in delusional self-defense but mistakenly killed Peel's personal secretary. The jury acquitted M'Naughten. On appeal, the House of Lords—England's highest court of appeal—formulated the right-wrong test. The test evaluates whether two necessary elements were present at the time the crime was committed:
1.A mental disease or defect caused such damage to the defendants' capacity to reason
2.That either they did not know what they were doing, or if they knew what they were doing, they did not know it was wrong
Several jurisdictions have supplemented the right-wrong test with the irresistible impulse test. The irresistible impulse test focuses on defendants' willpower, or their capacity to control their actions at the time of the crime. The test evaluates whether two necessary elements existed:
1.The defendants suffered from a mental disease or defect.
2.It caused them to lose the power to choose between right and wrong.
In other words, the defendants know what they are doing, they know it's wrong, but they cannot stop themselves from doing it.
The substantial capacity test focuses on both reason and will. Formulated by the American Law Institute, it evaluates whether two necessary elements existed at the time of the crime:
1.The defendants had a mental disease or defect.
2.It caused them to lack substantial capacity to either appreciate the wrongfulness (criminality) of their conduct or to conform their conduct to the requirements of the law.