Insanity. When some people think of the word "insanity", television shows comparable to Law and Order and NCIS may come to mind. Because of some of these shows, we may not fully understand what madness is. In this article I will discuss what insanity is, a brief history of insanity, and its impact on today's society. Additionally, I will also discuss my personal thoughts on the topic. What exactly is the insanity defense? The insanity defense can be defined as "A defense asserted by an accused in a criminal prosecution to avoid responsibility for the commission of a crime, when at the time of the crime the person did not appreciate the nature, quality or wrongdoing of the criminal act. actions. » In order to understand the insanity defense in its entirety, we must define other forms of it. The most common variant is cognitive insanity, which is when the accused is profoundly impaired by mental illness/defect at the time of the crime and did not understand or appreciate the nature of the crime. he committed or simply did not know what he had committed. what I had done was wrong. Another form of insanity is called voluntary insanity, or irresistible impulse. Furthermore, voluntary insanity is essentially the same as the insanity plea, but with one crucial difference: unlike the insanity plea, while the defendant does not understand right from wrong, the irresistible impulse occurs when the defendant can discern between what is right and what is wrong. Furthermore, insanity should not be confused with incompetence, as there is an essential difference. The main difference is that the incompetent accused is sent to a mental institution until he is found competent to proceed to trial, whereas in the case of insanity the accused is not and will not be middle of paper... ...the expression “not guilty by reason of insanity” is outdated. If the court has established that the accused did in fact commit the crime, beyond a reasonable doubt, like Eddie Ray Routh, then the individual is overwhelmingly guilty. Likewise, if the defense can prove that the defendant is in fact insane, then the individual's sentence should be adjusted accordingly. The accused would still be guilty, but he would still be sentenced to a mental institution. In summary, the insanity defense is a way for the accused to avoid responsibility for a crime, if the individual did not appreciate or understand the nature of the crime. committed and stems from a long history dating back to the 12th century until the Model Penal Code of 1972. The effects of the insanity plea on modern society are distorted by the media and the way it portrays insanity pleas as more common than they actually are..