The Elderly Offender and the Insanity Defense in Canada and the United States: implications for criminal law reform and mental health states (status) evaluation practice

Abstract

<p>To study and (1) to describe the history of the elderly offender who have committed an indictable offense in Canada (or felony in the U.S.A.) and who have used the insanity defense; (2) to begin to gather statistics on the prevelance of this group in the criminal justice system, and (3) to address the social policy issue of which system benefits from labelling the elderly offender mentally ill. In terms of the latter point, this work will attempt to show the consequences of the elderly offender being labelled insane. The aims of this study is to investigate "The Elderly offender and the Insanity Defense in Canada and the United States, implications for criminal law reform and mental health states (status) evaluation practice." This work follows the elderly offender and their processing, labelling, consequences of being reforms and future social policies affecting elderly offenders aged 55 and over. The results show that the elderly offender is subject to a "ping-pong" scenario via the criminal justice system to mental health institutions to nursing homes, general hospital, or community group homes to the street where a small percentage recidivate activating another "ping-pong" scenario.</p>