Perception Of Insanity Defense Among Nurses Working In Mental Health At Yeka Kotebe Hospital Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Background: In criminal law, for the accused not to be criminally responsible due to disease ofrnthe mined, a person must be found insane by the courts. The insanity defense excuses or justifiesrnfor committing the crime for people who have some form of severe mental illness or disability.rnThe reasoning behind the insanity plea is that mental illness affects the person’s ability torncomprehend his/her actions as well as loss of volitional control. For a defendant to successfullyrnplead the insanity defense he/she must not only show the presence of mental illness but also showrnthat there is a connection between the mental illness and the present criminal offense. Lay peoplernbelieved insanity was raised in 37% of criminal cases, when the actual rate is less than 1%. Inrnaddition, even after being provided with the correct statistics, half the people maintained theirrnmisconceptions. Criminal laws of many jurisdictions including the Ethiopian law proscribesrnafter a successful insanity defense the mentally ill offender is to be kept in a much restrictivernsetting even for a much longer period. rnMethod: this qualitative study tried to explore the understanding of insanity defense amongrnnurses working in mental health at Yeka Kotebe Hospital. Data was collected from 13rnparticipants using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted in Amharic and itrnwas transcribed then translated to English. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. rnResult: it was found that most participants have limited knowledge about insanity defense. Somernparticipants knew the about the courts procedure and evaluation process while some had somernmisconceptions. It was also found that most of the participants had positive attitude towards therninsanity defense while there were some who had negative attitude towards the insanity defense. rnIn regards to which mental illness are raised frequently for insanity defense all participants saidrneither bipolar or schizophrenia. rnConclusion: there is a gap in the participants’ understanding of the different aspects of therninsanity defense as well as their attitude towards the insanity defense rnRecommendation: there is a need for further researches to be conducted in order to get a betterrnunderstanding about insanity defense among other mental health professionals, professionalsrnworking in the legal system as well as the general public.

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