Mental Illness, Crime, and the Culture of Punishment

The acquittal of John W. Hinckley galvanized the American public in a way that led directly to the reversal of 150 years of study and understanding of the complexities of psychological behavior and the relationship between mental illness and certain violent acts. ¹ The public's outrage over a jurisprudential system that could allow a defendant who shot an American president on national television to plead "not guilty" (for any reason) became a "river of fury" after the jury's verdict was announced. ²