Mental Illness as a Consequence of Criminal Offence Against the Person

Abstract

Introduction: Among crimes against human health we distinguish serious bodily harms, one of the signs of which is recognized as a mental illness. The aim: The paper was aimed at the development of the procedure for determining the mental disorder of a victim as a sign of a serious bodily harm, as well as the establishing the possibilities of clarifying the legislative formulation of the above norm of the Criminal Code. Materials and methods: Over 300 criminal proceedings under the Arts.121, 122 and 125 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for the period from 2007 to 2018 have been studied. For this purpose, common methods of research have been used, namely, the analysis and synthesis, as well as own observations of the process of consideration of the above criminal proceedings. Results and conclusions: The findings of the study assisted in identification of gaps in the regulation of the procedure to define mental illness as a characteristic feature of serious bodily harm. The ways of further improvement of the procedure of conducting expert studies of mental illness as a characteristic feature of a serious bodily harm. The rules for determining the psychic (mental) illness that are recognized by us as archaic and that does not correspond to the established procedure of such definition by the comprehensive forensic medical and forensic psychiatric examination involving a forensic medical expert, two or three psychiatrists (narcologists), summarizing in the conclusion of the presence of mental illness in a person, assessed by experts as a characteristic feature of serious bodily harm should be changed.