ABSTRACT
Society has long been fascinated by the abnormal and the unpredictable. Nowhere is this fixation more apparent that in the study of the criminally insane. This chapter examines the development of madness, particularly criminal insanity, as a concept and a diagnosis over time. Beginning in Ancient Greece and advancing into the Middle Ages, it explores early interpretations of aberrant behavior, first as a philosophical construct, then a spiritual one. The authors examine how, as asylums developed, medical professionals stepped into the ring, attempting to differentiate different disorders, thus creating the field of psychiatry. Recognizing the overlap between mental disorders and criminal behavior, psychiatrists began carving out a niche in the courtroom, muddying diagnostic and legalistic waters with diverse and abstract definitions. Despite the lack of uniformity in clinical demarcation, western courts solidified their perspectives around mental illness, recognizing and formalizing decreased culpability for the criminally insane, with one notable exception. The chapter concludes with said exception: the psychopath. With no known cause and an exceptionally high track record of wreaking havoc, the psychopath became a central point of study in the overlap between mental disorders and crime. Despite this focus, psychopaths remain unacknowledged by the criminal justice system.
