Opinions concerning the insanity plea and criminality among mental patients.

Although numerous discourses relating to the insanity plea are to be found in the psychiatric and legal literature, there are but few empirical studies that address even the fundamental issue of its incidence and success rate.! Similarly, to the authors' knowledge, there is but one study concerned with the attitudes of individuals toward the insanity plea; that study was a survey made of lawyers and psychiatrists.2 In the present research, respondents were asked to (1) estimate the arrest rates of non-criminal civil male patients, aged 18-64, hospitalized at the Wyoming State Hospital as compared with given arrest rates by category for the general male population of the same age group; (2) estimate the frequency and success rate of the insanity plea in Wyoming; and (3) indicate their knowledge of certain procedural matters relating to the insanity plea. Subjects anonymously completing the questionnaire were 209 University of Wyoming students. Of these, 169 were enrolled in undergraduate psychology classes and 40 in a master's program in Business Administration offered through the Extension Division in Casper, Wyoming. These were 111 females and 98 males. Age distribution ranged from 17 to 43 years, with a mean of 22.3 and a median of 20.3. Educational level varied from 12 to 16 years, with a mean of 13.5 and a median of 13.3. Sixty-two subjects (30%) reported that they, or a member of their immediate family, had sometime in the past been victims of a criminal act. These offenses varied from murder to vandalism.