Not Criminally Responsible

[Tylerr]

Hi all,

I'm new to this site so correct me if I'm posting this in the wrong section. I'm a first year psychiatric nursing student and I have a term paper coming up. The topic is that individuals diagnosed with a mental health disorder who have committed a crime should be found Not Criminally Responsible. I am having trouble writing this paper and any thoughts or opinions would be extremely helpful. Thanks!

[elkpark]

Too many variables for there to be a yes/no answer to your question. For one thing, "mental health disorder" can mean anything from mild depression or anxiety to intractable psychosis.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Do you have any thoughts or ideas yourself? As a first year nursing student, your primary job is not just to write your papers, but also to learn how to research and develop your own ideas.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

P.s. What do you mean by saying you're a psych nursing student? Nursing students don't specialize in school.

[MunoRN, RN]

The portion of those "diagnosed with a mental health disorder" that are truly unable to tell right from wrong is very small, so no, I don't think it would be appropriate or respectful to those with mental health disorders to say that none of them know right from wrong and therefore shouldn't be held responsible for crimes they commit.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

P.s. What do you mean by saying you're a psych nursing student? Nursing students don't specialize in school.

Poster is from British Columbia in Canada, where nurses can specialize into psychiatric nursing programs. CRPNBC

Agree that this is in no way a simple yes/no question.

[elkpark]

P.s. What do you mean by saying you're a psych nursing student? Nursing students don't specialize in school.

OP is in Canada (where they do have specialized psych nursing degrees).

[Nonyvole, BSN, RN]

OP, this sounds more like a paper that wants your opinion...let me put on a writing teacher's hat for a few minutes.

So, do you think they should be held criminally responsible or not?

Now that you've answered that question, time to start your research. What reliable sources (tip: start with your textbooks) can you find to back up your opinion? Look at the sources that your textbook authors used. Are you able to find those writings and use them? Now go online. Google Scholar is an excellent place to start the internet searching. Ovid, PubMed...your school librarians can help you with that, as well.

As part of an opinion paper, you will want to acknowledge the other side. Spare a paragraph or two for that.

Now, maybe you really can't decide one way or the other. So what is your opinion?

Is this your first paper as a university student? There are so many tips and tricks out there that it will take too long for me to go through them all. If your school offers writing tutors, then they will be a good resource for you to use.

One final question. Did you take any sort of academic writing class?

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

P.s. What do you mean by saying you're a psych nursing student? Nursing students don't specialize in school.

They do in Canada and the UK

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I would go online to your library's website and look for online journal articles. You are not going to right a legitimate paper based on peoples online opinions!

Annie

[dishes, BSN, RN]

@tyler start your paper with the Canadian legal definition of 'not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder' .

[Tylerr]

Thank you all for the feedback. This definitely isn't my first essay as a uni student. What my opinion is and what I'm aruguing is that if an individual is diagnosed with a mental health disorder they should be found NOT criminally responsible. I have read through some academic articles and what I'm finding in common to support my argument is how prisons/jails worsen symptoms of mental illness and individuals would receive better/proper treatment in a hospital rather than behind bars. Should I save my last paragraph to explain the other side of the argument?