Gender, Murder and Madness

Abstract

Psychiatric decisions play a key role in the outcome of a homicide case. Particularly where defendants are diagnosed with a mental illness, psychiatric considerations are significant for the verdict and subsequent disposal of the case. As many feminist and legal writers have pointed out, however, these considerations are mediated by gendered assumptions of how madness is constituted and the effects it has on the defendant’s behaviour. This chapter examines the connection between gender, murder and psychiatric decisions by focusing on those homicide cases where defendants have been diagnosed with a mental illness. In such cases, the defendant typically enters a plea of diminished responsibility, which, if successful, reduces a charge of murder to one of manslaughter. Examining how mental illness is constructed for female and male defendants highlights gender differences in their construction as well as the different legal effects produced by psychiatric advice and evidence for men and women. By focusing on defendants diagnosed with a mental illness, the concern is not so much with whether women are more likely to be found mentally ill than men, but rather on how psychiatric assessments determine and shape issues of intent, motive, and criminal responsibility, which, it is argued, rely on a gendered and individualistic understanding about the causes of madness.