Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine how individual differences in stigma against people who are mentally ill, free will beliefs, just world beliefs, and sentencing goals are associated with attitudes toward the insanity defense. Because there are many misconceptions about what the insanity defense is, and how it is actually used as a sentence, the Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) plea may be underutilized due to public opinions reflecting misunderstanding and/or possible biases (Perlin, 2017). Understanding the relation between individual beliefs and attitudes about the insanity defense would help to better understand potential biases present in a court setting (e.g., juror opinion). The present study hypothesizes that people who had greater stigma toward the mentally ill, greater belief in free-will, greater belief in a just world, and sentencing goals leaning toward retribution/punitiveness would have more negative attitudes towards the insanity defense. A bootstrapped hierarchical regression was run to test this hypothesis and found that the variables of stigma (b= .340, p=.001, 95% BCa CH [.268, .420]), free will beliefs (b= .538, p=.002, 95% BCa CH [.242, .815]), and sentencing goals (b= .420, p=.001, 95% BCa CH [.324, .504]) were significant predictors of attitudes toward the insanity defense in the expected direction. These results support the hypothesis and indicate that greater stigma against the mentally ill, greater free-will beliefs, and more punitive sentencing goals are associated with more negative attitudes toward the insanity defense. Legal and clinical implications of these results are discussed.

Keywords: Insanity Defense, Stigma, Moral Responsibility, Free-will, Sentencing, Belief in a Just World

Year of Submission

2021

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Psychology

First Advisor

Nicholas Schwab, Chair

Date Original

5-2021

Object Description

1 PDF file (viii, 79 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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