Den störda definitionen - En studie av förutsebarheten kring termen allvarlig psykisk störning

Sammanfattning: This paper discusses the predictability regarding the term severe mental disorder (allvarlig psykisk störning), both its definition and how its applied in the most serious violent crimes. To research the term through a broad perspective, a wide range of information has been reviewed and analysed. Mentally abnormal offenders have been treated differently within criminal law as far as it is possible to examine the legal system, but what actually constitutes a mental deviation is not defined. A discourse analysis has been done to try to trace the different trends or reasoning regarding the legal assessment where offenders charged with serious violent crimes were suspected to have a serious mental disorder. This work has also particularly examined the history of the term, current legislation and potential change. The author has conducted interviews with a chief judge and a forensic psychiatrist about the term. Legal assessments regarding the justifications, explanations and references of serious mental disorder have been widely studied. It is not seldom that offenders who commit serious violent crimes are seen as mentally abnormal by the public. The essay helps to clarify what actually constitutes a serious mental disorder and that it distinguishes itself from just a mental disorder. The Court has to, according to guiding precedents of the Supreme Court, assess the forensic psychiatric statement that treats the offender's mental state. The forensic psychiatrics assess if the offender committed the crime under the influence of a psychosis or a psychosis-like state. The court shall not make any own medical assessments but shall compare the reports from the forensic psychiatric examination and the Judicial Council on the basis of the facts in the investigation and the skills used in the investigation. In short, the author found that the term is not predictable, but that the individual assessment is made in each case by a qualified team. The lack of predictability for the public is a great lack of legal certainty, but maintained somewhat by the knowledge that everyone gets an equal investigation. Regarding lawyers knowledge regarding the term, its definition is not important, because it is not lawyers who assesses if a serious mental disorder existed or not. It is a legal term, but the instrument of psychiatrists. The term severe mental disorder is not difficult to define, it is difficult to assess, but it is not the lawyers who conducts the assessment.