Insanity Defense Research Paper

Before beginning the reading, I knew that my mindset on the insanity defense would be corrected to some degree. It has been shaped and morphed solely by TV and famous crimes where drama sells. The first case that came to my head as I opened the document was the shooter of the Aurora movie theater who attempted to plead guilty with insanity. The case quickly identifies this correlation as vividness heuristics. Without thinking of the salient factors, my mind quickly jumped to the most extreme example and assumed it is more frequent than it is. The first myth regarding the overuse of the insanity defense is derived from Television due to it being the only medium with consistent frequency. My father, who faces something similar, is a Detective with the Police specializing in their ID section working on forensic science for murders and robberies. The science surrounding fingerprints has been widely accepted with no two humans ever being recorded to share the same fingerprint. However, when the prosecution calls someone like my father to the stand, jurors are becoming less impressed. What’s known as the “CSI Effect” explains that due to increase amount of shows such as CSI, jurors expect to see more evidence as shown on TV. …show more content…
Now, this can become a larger discussion revolving around the lack of awareness to mental health, but narrowly focused, people assume a look. The Aurora killer famously showed to trial with rainbow hair and a dazed look. Although he was denied, it could be said he would have an easier time proving it than a clean cut, well clothed defendant. Humans naturally make quick first impressions as seen in the shooter game. Obviously, this wouldn’t be possible to research given the qualitative input of “looks crazy”, but I would find it interesting if a connection could be