<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Criminal responsibility refers to a person’s ability to understand his action, behavior at the time a crime is committed, what a person is thinking when he commits a crime or the expected result when a crime is committed. Crime is defined in terms of an act or omission (actus reus) and a mental state (mens rea). In this paper, is presented the general concept of irresponsibility and essentially reduced responsibility as a reason to be exempted from the punishment provided by the Criminal Code. Any perpetrator of a criminal offense who is capable of undertaking any action can be an active subject of a criminal offense, with the fact that regarding their sanctioning by the criminal system is concerned there are some restrictions related to age as well as dividing the perpetrators into responsible and non-responsible ones. For a person to be convicted of a crime, there must be evidence that proves his guilt, and that proves whether the perpetrator was in a regular state of mind or committed the criminal offense due to his irresponsibility.</p>
<p>Another important element of this scientific paper is the historical aspects of how irresponsibility has been treated from the customary law to the present day, a huge focus gets also the treatment of the biological-psychological concept on one hand and the treatment of the legal concept on the other hand for this category of people. A criminal defendant who turns out to have been incapacitated at the time he committed a crime may be acquitted because of his incapacity, or he may be sentenced leniently because he was unable to understand the importance of his actions. Legally, the defendant must prove and convince the court that he was not able to understand his actions, or he is not able to distinguish right from wrong, or he must prove that he committed the act in uncontrolled impulses.</p>
</abstract>

Criminal responsibility refers to a person’s ability to understand his action, behavior at the time a crime is committed, what a person is thinking when he commits a crime or the expected result when a crime is committed. Crime is defined in terms of an act or omission (actus reus) and a mental state (mens rea). In this paper, is presented the general concept of irresponsibility and essentially reduced responsibility as a reason to be exempted from the punishment provided by the Criminal Code. Any perpetrator of a criminal offense who is capable of undertaking any action can be an active subject of a criminal offense, with the fact that regarding their sanctioning by the criminal system is concerned there are some restrictions related to age as well as dividing the perpetrators into responsible and non-responsible ones. For a person to be convicted of a crime, there must be evidence that proves his guilt, and that proves whether the perpetrator was in a regular state of mind or committed the criminal offense due to his irresponsibility.
Another important element of this scientific paper is the historical aspects of how irresponsibility has been treated from the customary law to the present day, a huge focus gets also the treatment of the biological-psychological concept on one hand and the treatment of the legal concept on the other hand for this category of people. A criminal defendant who turns out to have been incapacitated at the time he committed a crime may be acquitted because of his incapacity, or he may be sentenced leniently because he was unable to understand the importance of his actions. Legally, the defendant must prove and convince the court that he was not able to understand his actions, or he is not able to distinguish right from wrong, or he must prove that he committed the act in uncontrolled impulses.

Criminal Responsibility (Insanity Defense)

South East European University, Tetovo Legal administrator

SEEU Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Criminal Responsibility (Insanity Defense)"}

Criminal responsibility refers to a person’s ability to understand his action, behavior at the time a crime is committed, what a person is thinking when he...

Criminal Responsibility (Insanity Defense)

Published Online: Dec 30, 2022

Page range: 120 - 138

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/seeur-2022-0092

Keywords
criminal responsibility, insanity defense, guilt, human action, mental state

© 2022 Rina Zejneli et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Criminal Responsibility (Insanity Defense)

Published Online: Dec 30, 2022

Page range: 120 - 138

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/seeur-2022-0092

Keywordscriminal responsibility, insanity defense, guilt, human action, mental state

© 2022 Rina Zejneli et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
criminal responsibility, insanity defense, guilt, human action, mental state