Criminal responsibility

Abstract

Despite our intuitions, there is no generally agreed definition of criminal responsibility. Here, the relevant English legal background, the mental condition defences, and the main philosophical theories of criminal responsibility are reviewed. The latter are the choice and capacity theories, character theory, agency theory, social theory, and the definitional theory. The psychiatric defences of insanity and diminished responsibility are considered in respect of each of these theories. Although criminal responsibility does not have any explicit role in English criminal law, it does pervade the system, and the problem with the lack of any generally agreed approach is perhaps most starkly exposed when the mental condition defences are contested in court.