The Trial of Offenders of Antisocial Offences - Term Paper Example

Exploring the case of Andrea Yates Introduction Suicide and homicide cases have become a common criminal trend that is challenging to investigate and give appropriate verdict. Challenges in judgment results from the multiple of variables, which exists in determination of the mental status of an individual at the point of committing a criminal act (Liem et al., 2011). Nevertheless, it is agreeable that there are psychological factors responsible for committing homicides and suicides as the acts are deviant from the socially acceptable norms. Scholars have attempted to attribute several factors including genetic predisposition, environmental setup as well as traumatic events to be some of the major influences of antisocial behaviors. The main question during the trial of an offenders of antisocial offences is the presence of inclusive laws that can recognize and properly attribute commitment of anti-social acts with the mental status during the act. Availability of such a law would ensure that offenders are fairly convicted in relation to their psychosocial status, and others referred to appropriate mental facilities. Application of investigatory laws in an appropriate manner coupled with adequate referral mechanism will be a pivotal point in ensuring that both the offenders and the offended are served with the right form of justice (Robertson & Law, 2007). Case of Andrea Yates Andrea Yates, who formerly resided in Houston, Texas, made a confession to having killed her five children after drowning them in the bathtub. She confessed to the authorities as well as to her husband whom she called informing that she had committed the act. All the children of Andrea and Rusty were named from the figures of the bible: Noah, john, Paul, Luke, and Mary. The naming structure of these children was influenced by devotion to Christianity. Andrea developed the devotion after listening to the extremist sermons of Michal Peter, a minister that captivated the spiritual life of Andrea with his preaching of good and evil spirits (West, 2006). Andrea was determined to have committed the crime following a mental instability. Following the birth of the fourth child, she was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis as well as postpartum depression. Her psychiatrist then advised her against giving birth to another child as that would worsen the condition. In June 1999, rusty came home and found Andrea quivering and chewing her figures, a trait that he compared to degeneration of mental condition to the childhood level. She equally attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on pills but was saved and admitted in a hospital where she was treated with anti-depressants. Within days of her parole, rusty reported that Andrea had demonstrated flights of ideas requesting to be allowed to kill herself. In 2000, Andrea’s psychiatrist reported that she conceived against his wish and stopped taking the antipsychotic medications. She thus developed self-mutilating behavior and began feverishly reading the bible. In June 20, 2001, Rusty left for work and left Andrea to take care of the children. Leaving the children under the care of Andrea was against the psychiatrists’ recommendation, she seized the opportunity to drowned the children in a bathtub then called the police and later her husband (West, 2006). The sequence of events that followed the killing of the children begun with Andrea thought to have had a premeditated plan to commit the act. The premeditation was influenced by the fact that she waited for her husband to leave as a way of avoiding him from preventing the incident. Equally, Andrea locked the family dog in its cage to prevent it from interference before drowning of the children. Ultimately, Andrea called both the police and her husband informing them of the act (Holman, 2011). The trial Prior to the trial, Andrea had confessed to both her psychiatrist, the police and her husband of having killed her children. In her trial, the defense team unanimously agreed in their testimony that Andrea was psychotic. Nevertheless, according to the Texas law, to consider Andrea under insanity defense, she had to prove that she lacked the knowledge of differentiating wrong from right at the time of committing the offence. Moreover, from the sequence of events on the day she drowned her children, there was a demonstrable evidence that she knew what she was doing. She first waited for the husband to leave and then locked the family dog (Kraemer et al., 2004). The trial jury thus rejected the insanity defense and convicted Andrea to life imprisonment with the qualifications of parole in forty years. In 2005, the Texas court of appeal reversed the conviction after a determination that the prosecution witness and the California psychiatrist admitted having given false material testimony during the trial. The court of appeal thus determined the decision of the trial court got influenced by the testimony of the prosecution witness and the psychiatrist and thus a new fair trial would be necessary. In 2009, during the second hearing, Andrea pleaded not guilty on a defense of insanity. She was thus granted a release on bail with a condition to be admitted at a mental treatment facility. She was later found not guilty through insanity defense and was committed to North Texas state hospital. The psychiatric for the Texas state prosecution and the defense lawyers agreed that she was mentally ill at the time of committing the murder. However, the state asserted that she was legally aware of her actions when committing the crime (Liem et al., 2011). Psychosocial history of committing a crime in Yate’s case In as much as Andrea could have been aware of her actions when committing the murder, both the prosecutor and the defense team agreed mental instability played a significant role in the act. Postpartum psychosis, which is a group of mental illnesses occurring after a traumatic child bearing event, is closely attributed to the mental status of Andrea at the time she committed the act. Postpartum psychosis and depression are genetically predisposed conditions presenting with signs and symptoms of extreme mood swings, hallucinations and irritability (Brantingham & Brantingham, 2008). The condition can be augmented by other factors that cause displeasure to the mind. In the situation of Andrea, the preaching of Michael peter is believed to have played a significant role in influencing her cognitive value. Additionally, these preaching led her to depict self as a bad mother who had failed mentor her children in the right was (Sit, Rothschild, & Wisner, 2006). Drowning of the children manifests a peak of cognitive degeneration to a level where her personality was detached in a manner that it would be difficult to distinguish the socially acceptable norms from the antisocial behavior. In a normal psychological state, an individual becomes guilty or remorseful after committing a crime. Nevertheless, this is not the case in psychosocial disorders, which is demonstrated from the case of Andrea, who willingly admitted having killed the children and accepted punishment (Wikstrom & Treiber, 2007). Factors for commitment of the crime Drawing inference from the psychological theory on the causes of a crime, antisocial behavior can be triggered by events that are accumulator in nature. These events are those that contribute to negative impulses on the cognition process. An accumulation of these negative impulses would result to commitment of an antisocial act. Nevertheless, these negative impulses could be regulated through appropriate medication and psychological care. Attributing psychological theory to the case of Andrea Yates, she had suffered postpartum psychosis, managed through antidepressants and psychological cancelling. Nevertheless, the condition was worsened during the birth of the fifth child and the withdrawal of antipsychotics that was acting as a regulator or the negative psychotic impulses (West, 2006). Postpartum psychosis is equally a genetic predisposing that has the capability of remaining in a recessive form if the triggering events are not interfered. This regard means that in the assumption that Andrea stopped the birthing process with her third child; the diagnosis of postpartum depression could not have been made. Genetic predisposition is thus a crucial determinant that attributed to the psychotic condition, which ultimately led to the brutal murder of the children. Additionally, social factors had immense contribution to the commitment of a crime by Andrea. Religion as a social factor appeals to the cognitive mind of an individual. Religious teaching, when presented in an extremist point, especially to people with mental instability immense, contributes to a strong belief in evil and good. In an attempt to act according to good, and individual would commit antisocial acts. In her testimony, Andres confessed that she drowned the children with the intentions of saving their souls from evil. In accordance to biological theory of committing a crime, biological factors such as health status and mental status are strong contributors to the nature of the crime. Hormones and drugs play an important role in the regulation of human behavior. These hormones must be checked at optimal level for appropriateness of cognitive value. After the birth of the fourth child, Andrea developed hormonal imbalance that led to depression and psychotic state. Nevertheless, the imbalance could be brought to equilibrium through a treatment with anti-psychotics and anti-depressants. However, this equilibrium was again brought to imbalance when Andrea withdrew from the medication after conceiving the fifth child. The event got worsened by the presentation of a traumatic event of childbirth that exacerbated the psychotic state (West, 2006). Impact of psychological, social and biological theories of aggression Aggression is considered to an overt social behavior with the intention of inflicting harm or unpleasant sensation on another individual. An aggressive act could be negative or positive in relation to the aggressor’s point of view. A negative aggression is when the aggressor uses a physical harm with the intention of causing destruction to an individual while a positive aggression occurs when an individual causes a physical harm with the intent of benefiting the victim. The case of Andrea Yates can be described as a positive aggression in accordance to her perspective. This is in relation to the fact that she drowned the children with the intention of helping them, though that was not ethical and normal according to the societal definition (Lopez-Paredes, 2008). Drawing from the biological theory, the brain structure plays an integral role in the determination of the possibility of committing a criminal act. As a result of a biological fact that the structure of the brain influences neurological impulses in the central nerves’ system that affects other biological characteristics like nutrition and metabolism. An influence on other biological and physiological functions of the body due to neurological deficit would result to stimulation of a psychotic condition that would result to a delinquent behavior. The social environment contributes to the performance of antisocial behavior. In a situation when an identified psychotic patient is exposed to an environment that would create little hindrances from performing an antisocial act, the individual will most likely be moved to commit the act. In the case of Andrea Yates, the husband despite having the knowledge that the wife was experiencing behaviors considered self-destructive and threat to other, he left her at home with limited care. To worsen the whole condition, she was to care for the children. The environment created by the absence of a husband or any other person who could restrain her from the act, provided an ample social setting where she could exercise her antisocial drives. With little resistance from the children, Andrea thus used the environmental opportunity to drown her children. Other than the biological, psychotic and social characteristics, other parameters of daily living explain the reasons for the commitment of the crime. These parameters include interaction with other individuals in the environment that could have triggered the psychotic actions. These interactions could be after a chat with other persons who seemed not to understand of the psychotic situation. Equally, the additional parameters that could contribute to acting in an antisocial manner could result from the diet. Other consumable increases impulses to the brain thus increasing the incidences with which a person could commit an antisocial act (Lopez-Paredes, 2008). Laws protecting individuals with mental disorders The Americans with disabilities acts and mental illness is a prominent law that protects the people with disabilities of any nature and mental conditions. These individuals are to be treated fairly and entitled to equal rights as any other citizen. In a criminal trial, a mental status is examined to ascertain the mental status during commitment of an act. A person should benefit from a defense of insanity in case a person is proven to have been mentally ill during the performance of a criminal act (Keyes, 2005). Type of crime committed by Andrea Yates and ethics of the case According to the definition of the federal bureau of investigation, mass murder is the killing of more than four people without time for cooling. In this essence, mass murder is the killing of four and more people simultaneously. Going by the definition according to FBI, Andrea committed a homicide mass murder. Mass murder is a capital offence and under very limited circumstances would an offender of mass murder escape the full force of law (Katsavdakis, Meloy, & White, 2011). Nevertheless, on an ethical perspective, mental illness resulted to the commitment of the murder by Andrea. From an ethical view, the defendant had the right to plead not guilty on the grounds of defense of insanity. This would be proven effectively after a mental status examination. Following the initial interview with the police, the mental status of Andrea was found not to have been stable prior, during and after the murder. It was, therefore, unfair for the trial chamber to convict Andrea to life imprisonment. However, the decision taken by the appeal court was more just and realistic as it granted the offender her right to pled and used the defense of insanity to judge Andrea not guilty References Brantingham, P. J., & Brantingham, P. L. (2008). Crime Pattern Theory. In Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis (pp. 78–93). Holman, L. M. (2011). The Andrea Yates effect: Priming of mental illness stereotypes through exemplification of postpartum disorders. 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A review of postpartum psychosis. Journal of Women’s Health (2002), 15, 352–368. West, D. A. (2006). Andrea Yates and the Criminalization of the Filicidal Maternal Body. Feminist Criminology. Wikstrom, P.-O. H., & Treiber, K. (2007). The Role of Self-Control in Crime Causation: Beyond Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime. European Journal of Criminology. Read More