Letter: Patients or criminals?

Violence among Psychiatric Patients and Criminals

Agressive behaviour is a part of basic human nature. It is an adaptive behaviour having its origin in genetically coded neural mechanisms that are acted upon by hormonal and psychosocial factors. It has multiple determinants whose manifestations and effects vary with age, sex and culture. Aggressive behaviour promotes the survival of the individual as well as the social groups. However, in the ...

Criminals or Patients? Towards a Tragic Conception of Moral and Legal Responsibility

There is a gap between, on the one hand, the tragic character of human action and, on the other hand, our moral and legal conceptions of responsibility that focus on individual agency and absolute guilt. Drawing on Kierkegaard’s understanding of tragic action and engaging with contemporary discourse on moral luck, poetic justice, and relational responsibility, this paper argues for a reform of ...

Incompetents, criminals, or spies: Macroeconomic analysis of routing anomalies

Route anomalies, beyond simple leaks, are occurring on the order of tens of thousands a year. These may be accidents. There is anecdotal evidence that indicate many of these are in fact crimes. There are case studies that illustrate the use of these for national intelligence. Any given anomaly could be an accident, a crime, or an attack. To understand the nature of routing anomalies we offer an...

Sentences for Sex Criminals

Assessing dangerousness in criminals.

This article formulates a definition of the term dangerousness, indicates why the commission of dangerous offences cannot be reliably predicted, and then reviews the several factors which have been or might be used by those who have to make decisions about dangerousness in criminals. Its suggests that these factors are useful insofar as they help to illuminate the individual's capacity to feel ...