Legal Insanity in Criminal Law in Sweden

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17316369

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study legal insanity in Sweden. The criminal law in Sweden does not recognize the defense of insanity, and offenders with mental disorders cannot be declared not guilty of the offences committed by them. The doctrine legal analysis research method was employed to study the legal insanity in Swedish criminal law. In Sweden the criminal law does not distinguish between mentally normal and abnormal offenders in the determination of guilt; rather, it considers severe mental disorder and consequent lack of mental capacity of an offender during the award of sentence. A criminal with a serious mental disorder shall be admitted to the forensic psychiatric confinement rather than prison, subject to the fulfillment of certain criteria in Sweden. It is recommended that the law dealing with mentally unstable offenders be amended to reintroduce the concept of accountability and that the defense of insanity be recognized in the criminal law in Sweden.

Keywords: Criminal, Insanity, Law, Mental, Sweden