Forensic Psychiatry Case Analysis

“argument that forensic psychiatrists breach medical ethics by assisting the court, so that they may do harm to one party or the other. This argument comes from the ethical principle that doctors should not do harm [5]. Offenders who have mental illness present complex challenges to public policy and the criminal justice system. The identification, assessment, processing and treatment of these mentally ill offenders are the responsibility of forensic psychiatric services in collaboration with the justice system and other legal agencies [6]. Forensic psychiatric care differs from other psychiatric specialties in many ways. Firstly, Detention in a secure psychiatric setting can be both restrictive for the individual and expensive for society[7-10].in

The other challenge is that forensic psychiatrists have the pressure of working in institutions of social control and having to solve all the problems of violent behavior of the patients [14, 15]. There are two great challenges to the acquisition of knowledge and the raising of consciousness regarding the forensic psychiatry situation worldwide. The first has to do with its heterogeneity, due to various factors like cultural, political, juridical, religious, etc. this heterogeneity, sometimes within the same country, makes it difficult to describe it clearly. The second challenge is the lack of knowledge regarding many culturally different situations [14]. In many countries, there are few coordinated initiatives to involve all stakeholders, such as the police, departments of justice, prisons and hospitals, for the development of forensic mental health services [16].Common law is a legal tradition which is characterized by the fact that it is based on previous rulings and not on a set of prior principles. Because of this, a previous ruling can be considered a legal precedent to be used as a defense argument, a legal principle in a new trial. This legal tradition was originated in the United Kingdom and is applied in various countries, which were English colonies, such as the United States, Canada, India, and Pakistan. It has evolved into different legal groups in the countries in which it was adopted [14, 17].As described by Njenga [18], Most African countries do not have mental health legislation and some have outdated colonial versions that predate independence. Fewer have mental health policies and hardly any have specific budgets for mental health. Most