What I need to know - Society as a whole has faced challenge after challenge in recent years, and these challenges and difficulties have not happened silently. Due to the caustic world that we live in today, mental illness and psychological instability is at a major high. Depression and anxiety are becoming more common in the world that we live in, and other dehabilitating mental illnesses like psychosis are still realistic threats to our society. However, how can these mental illnesses be fairly taken into account throughout a trial? How can mental illness and psychology be a larger factor in deciding sentencing?
What I know - It is difficult to provide a blanket statement as to how mental instability is handled in trial, as many cases are closed or confidential, and each case can be handled differently depending on extenuating circumstances. However, generally when looking at mental illness, three things are observed; "competency to stand trial, mental status at time of offense, and prediction of future dangerousness" (Miller 1). Oftentimes however, psychological examinations are not conducted until a while after the crime is committed, meaning that mental stability could've changed, like if a suspect was going through a psychotic break at the time of the crime. This results in less people being considered mentally unstable even though they might be. Over "17 percent of people who enter the criminal justice system have some form of serious mental illness" yet not this many people are considered mentally unstable in the justice system, and this is a major discrepancy.