JUSTICE TO PSYCHOPATHS- PUNISHMENT OR THERAPY

Author – Antra Murkute pursuing LLB from Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Delhi

INTRODUCTION-

With an increase in number of crimes, there has been an increase in need of new methods to
identify and deal with the criminals. The Indian legal system presently does not recognize
psychopaths as criminals. Often when a heinous crime is committed, the accused is given the
name serial killer but most of the times, the individual has a mental disorder known as
psychopathy. A person who suffers from this is known as a psychopath. The term psychopath
is often considered a synonym of serial killer, incest, rape, and child abuse but there is a thin
line difference between them. This by far has not been recognized by our legal system due to
which we do not have the correct tools to deal with it.

Crime can only be curbed when we look behind the reason of commission and the other
correlated factors which drives an individual to commit the same. Our penal system offers
guidelines for formulating the penal policy and when we look at these together, we have
better understanding of the crime. This article deals with the aspect of justice to psychopaths
in relation to whether they should be punished or provided with therapy.

WHO ARE PSYCHOPATHS-

The term psychopath was derived in the 1800s from the Greek words Psyches and Pathos
which mean “sick mind” or “suffering soul”. During that time psychopathy was not
recognised as a mental disorder but considered to be a lack of moral values in an individual.
This started to change in the 20th century when a psychiatrists Hervey Cleckley published a
book “The Mask of Insanity”, in which he described the characteristics of psychopaths whom
he had interviewed.

Robert Hare, a psychiatrist who changed the way we look at psychopathy, described
psychopaths as “intraspecies predators” who use their charm to manipulate, intimidate others
for their benefit. He also performed certain tests on psychopaths and compared their results
with that of a normal person and concluded that a psychopath’s brain functions differently
than a normal person’s.

The psychopathy is a form mental illness which has been characterised as Anti-Social
Personality Disorder, where the person who suffers from it is highly manipulative, which
makes it exceedingly difficult to identify them. Various studies reveal that psychopaths feel
no remorse that is they have no conscience. For them, the concept of guilt does not exist.
They are deceitful and cunning and do not know the difference between right and wrong.
They are incapable of normal emotions like love, empathy, fear and often show traits of
egoistical and narcissists behaviour. They know that the society expects them to behave in a
certain way, and hence they can alter their behaviour according to different situations with no
fear of consequences. They are sadist who enjoy when others are in pain.
Psychopathy is a mental illness which has no cure. This is a challenge to the theoretical
principles of criminology and criminal justice as psychopaths are at a risk of persistent
criminal behaviour. But at the same time punishment is not a cure as the acts they perform are
due to a mental disorder and they do not have a motive behind them. This does not mean that
they are incapable of standing in a trial. They are very much capable of understanding the
charges against them and at times even help the counsel too. Its just that in their eyes they
have done nothing wrong.

In India there have been many reported cases regarding serial killer, mental illness, rape,
child abuse, incest, violent murders, schizophrenia but none of them talks about psychopathy.
If we take a closer look at these cases, we can see that most of these indicate psychopathy.
One of the examples of this is the Thug Breham, was one of the dangerous serial killers in
the world. He was active between 1790-1830 and during that time he apparently has killed
931 victims. His modus operandi was to strangle the victims using a ceremonial cloth.

Auto Shankar is the nickname of Gauri Shankar, an Indian serial killer who along with his
gang was found guilty of six murders, which were committed from 1988-1989. He and his
gang used to either burry the bodies in residential houses or burnt them.

Joshi- Abhyankar case- Rajendra Jakkal, Dilip Sutar, Shantaram Kanhoji Jagtap and
Munawar Harun Shah were commercial art students who were found guilty of 10 murders,
committed between 1966-1967. Their modus operandi was to break into homes, threaten the
residents at gun point for valuables. After that, they would murder the family members by
first stuffing cotton in their mouths and then strangling them with a nylon rope.

Raman Raghav was a psychopathic serial killer who was active in the mid-1960’s. He was
diagnosed with schizophrenia after his arrest and his sentence was reduced to lifr
imprisonment because his mental illness was found to be incurable.

Charles Sobhraj is a French serial killer also known by monikers, such as the “Bikini Killer”,
“The Splitting Killer”, and “The Serpent”. He usually operated through south-east asia in
1970s. his primary target were western tourists. He has been found guilty in atleast 8 known
murders and has committed numerous other crimes such as identity theft, robbery, drugging.
He was finally caught in 1976 in New Delhi and was sentenced imprisonment of 21 years.
After completing his sentence, he was sent back to France in 1997. He was again captured
when he returned to Nepal in 2003, where he was given life imprisonment.

Nithari murder case- Nithari case is one of the most horrifying and gruesome cases of 2006.
This case involved the commission of heinous crimes like sexual abuse, murder, cannibalism,
and attempted necrophilia. Some of it was just rumours and some were true. The case came to
light after a continued series of disappearances of the children (both boys and girls) and
teenagers from the Nithari village in the year 2005 and 2006. The accused Mohinder Singh
Pandher and Surender Koli have been charged with 16 murders out of which 8 judgements
are still pending. Their modus operandi was to sexually assault their victims and then kill
them, discarding their body behind their house. Judgments on other eight cases are yet to be
delivered. It has been almost eleven years since the case first came into light and families are
still waiting for the justice.

Apart from the above cases there have been many reported cases which contain the similar
psychopathic traits, like for example Dandupalya Krishna, Jack the Ripper, Son of Sam, Ted
Bundy, The Stoneman etc. some of these were captured and were given death penalty or
capital punishment, whereas some of them were never even caught. Though the real question
which arises here is the validity of the above judgements. In the above cases, the word
psychopath has not been mentioned anywhere, be it the investigation stage or the trial or the
final judgement of the court. But these above cases clearly show that the accused possessed
certain or all traits of a psychopath.

Also, at the same time these above cases prove that each parson has a different psyche. Some
people who have had sound upbringing may turn out to be fair people but those who have
experienced strained environment might turn out to be hostile or incompetent in certain ways.
One of the most important things that should be kept in mind during the pronouncing of these
judgements is that every individual has its own likes and dislikes that bend him towards his
choices. Hence it very essential to identify and understand the disease of psychopathy which
is still an un-emphasised area in our legal system.

LEGAL LACUNA-
In India whenever an offence is committed by a mentally ill offender it is actually very
difficult to analyse that is he mentally ill or falsely claiming to be one. There is no specific
modus operandi to deal with psychopaths for the police in the law to accurately identify them
in at an early stage. Also, it is very difficult for the police to identify the motive for
commission of such offence. The police usually base their investigation on the three types of
mental illness-

1. Unsoundness of mind
2. Insanity
3. Schizophrenia

With this view in mind the accused is either sent to mental hospital or kept in custody till the
investigation is complete. The process of investigation is very inhumane due to lack of
knowledge as to the reason of commission of such an offence by the accused. To convict the
accused with life imprisonment or death sentence based on the investigation and trail, can
sometimes be erroneous. This is because there is a lack of awareness of all categories of
mental disorder or the gruesomeness of the crime.

Psychopathy is one of the gravest of all mental disorder. Though a psychopath is very
dangerous, life imprisonment or death sentence might not be a solution for them because
although they know what they are doing, they do not know the reason behind their actions
hence their acts lack mens rea. The crimes they commit is because of their mental illness and
not because of their guilty mind, that is why they never hide their crimes. They never show
any remorse, guilt, or regret for their actions and whenever they are caught, they confess to
their crimes without any hesitation. They also show a desire to commit their crimes again.

Psychopathic behaviour is an unidentified area in our judicial system as our law only
recognises unsoundness of mind, insanity, and schizophrenia the parameters of mental illness.
Some provisions of law are formulated for a mentally ill individual like in IPC Section 84
deals with McNaughton rules of unsoundness of mind but this has been criticised as outdated
because its provision do not deal with the compulsive behaviour of psychopathy. Though
there are provisions in our personal law which briefly touch psychopathy such as Section 36
of Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and Evidence Act. The Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter
XXV also talks about the procedure of trial of an insane person. Even then these provisions
are inadequate to deal with psychopathy. Hence there is a need for more progressive special
laws to deal with psychopathic behaviour.

In our current legal system, it is near impossible to identify a psychopath at the stage of
arrest. This makes it very important to involve the psychiatrists and doctors at very early
stage in the case so that a proper medical examination and psyche analysis can be done. For
these, standard procedures should be established where its mandatory to perform such tests so
that the psychopathic behaviour can be identified at the earliest.

CONCLUSION-
On one hand where it can be clearly seen that awarding death sentence or life imprisonment
may not be the best solution as a psychopath has no feeling of fear, guilt or remorse, therapy
too can turn out to be futile. In clinical terms prognosis of psychopathy is very poor. Many
studies of psychopaths have revealed that they are unresponsive to their treatment. In fact, at
times putting them into therapy can make them worse. It allows them to be more adept in
deceiving people. Any attempt to treat them out of these psychopathic behaviour makes them
even more determined to continue them.

It is the duty of the legislative and the judicial system to inculcate such special laws which
would provide us with systematic approach to deal with psychopaths along with appropriate
measures to curb such crimes. Hence only when appropriate laws have been formulated, the
question of punishment or therapy can be answered.