Actual Conditions of Psychiatric Expert's Testimony and Assesment of Legal Responsibility

1980年，日本在一年内共发生了946起精神错乱案件。在这些案例的基础上，对精神病学专家作证的条件以及律师和检察官的责任认定进行了研究。首先，我们研究了暴力精神分裂症罪犯的精神病学证词情况(杀人案119例，人身攻击案96例)。我们发现了以下问题：1.进行精神病学证词的一些精神科医生在司法精神病学方面的知识不够。有必要为他们提供更广泛的教育。重要的是要有足够的设施和工作人员进行精神病学作证。其次，对946例复犯中发现的102例累犯的法律责任认定情况进行了研究。对相同案件的法律责任的确定往往有很大不同。我们发现了以下问题：1.法律责任并不总是根据疾病的严重程度或判断障碍来评估。检察官被提议将严重罪行的犯罪者评定为不负责任，而将轻微罪行的犯罪者评定为有限责任。累犯一般都是在类似的精神状态下实施犯罪。即使是这类案件，从完全、有限到无责任的评估也并不少见。4.我国没有安全措施，似乎经常导致精神错乱罪犯的累犯，同时也使律师难以评估法律责任。

There are altogether 946 cases of mentally disordered offenders in Japan during one year in 1980. On the basis of these cases, a study was made to clarify the condition of psychiatric expert's testimony and the assesment of the responsibility made by the lawyers and prosecutors.First, we studied the situation of the psychiatric testimony for violent schizophrenic offenders(homicide 119 cases, physical assault 96 cases). We found poblems as follows :1. Some of the psychiatrists who conducted the psychiatric testimony didn't have enough knowledge in forensic psychiatry. It is necessary to provide more extensive education for them.2. It is important to have adequate facilities and staff for the psychiatric testimony.3. The content and conclusion of the psychiatric expert's testimony should be used in the management of the mentally disordered offenders.Secondly, we studied the condition of assesment of legal responsibility in 102 cases of recidivism, found in a follow-up study of the 946 cases. The determination of legal responsibility for the same cases tended to vary considerably. We found the problems as follows :1. The legal responsibility was not always assesed according to the severity of the disease or the disorder of the judgment. The prosecutors were proposed to assess the offendrs of serious crime as irresponsibility, while those of the mild crimes as limited responsibility.3. It was common to the recidivism that the crimes were committes under the similar mental conditioins. Even to such cases, it was not rare that the assesments were varied from full, limited to no-responsibility.4.The fact that no security measures are there in our country seemd to cause recidivism of mentally disordered offenders frequently, and meanwhile, to make lawyers difficult to asses the legal responsibility.