Rapid Responses to:
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Rapid Responses: Rapid Responses published:
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Mentally disordered offenders
- Alejandro A. Bevaqua (14 April 2009)
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Alejandro A. Bevaqua, Forensic County Jail
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I´m a doctor of medicine specializing in forensics. I have worked in a county jail since 1995 and I´ve investigated -and go on doing it- the problems of mentally disordered offenders, especially these subjects who commit sexual crimes against children. I agree with the ideas posted by Ethics Code which says that, for a doctor, every person is just a person and nothing but a person; instead, Günther Jakobs, a German lawyer, says that a citizen is a person who observes and respects the social law. So, a person who commits violent crimes does not respect social law; instead, a person who is mentally disordered cannot respect social law. But they are both dangerous people, really very dangerous people. Then, I ask: is a mentally disordered offender who cannot respect social law because of his illness and who, in addition, commits a crime, really a true citizen? Does he have the same rights as other people? If he does, can he really understand his rights? And his obligations? Who is, as doctors, our first responsibility: the violent offender who is ill or the other citizens? As a doctor, I consider the criminal just as a person, but a dangerous person and I want him in jail or any other institution that provides security for this person and for society. Mentally disordered people, if they commit crimes, turn into dangerous people and we have to separate them from the other people, those who are -in Jakobs' words- really citizens. Criminal behavior concerns doctors too, and we have to explain our position clearly. Dr. Alejandro A. Bevaqua
Competing interests: None declared |
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