Assessment of Criminal Responsibility - Legal Aspects of the Expert Testimony of Personality Disorders

摘要

The article, written by a criminal court judge, deals with the problem area of personality disorders which is significant for the penal assessment of criminal responsibility both from legal and from forensic-psychiatric point of views. Taking a normative approach of criminal responsibility as basis, difficulties will be shown which result first from the diagnosis, then from the transfer of psychiatric categories into the legal term of "schwere andere seelische Abartigkeit" (severe psychological abnormality) (20 German Penal Law) and, finally, from the assessment-reserved to the judge-of the "Erheblichkeit" (significance) of a reduction of criminal responsibility ((sic)21 German Penal Law). Finally, the standards of expert testimony regarding criminal responsibility-as far as the personality of the offender is concerned are presented.