Abstract
Currently in the Republic of Croatia, in the clinical context, the term “psychopathy” is used according to the International Classification of Diseases 10th revision. In the legal context, it falls under the Criminal Code category of “some other serious mental disturbance”.
The chapter describes the historical and the current legal context related to psychopathic and other mentally disturbed perpetrators in the Republic of Croatia as well as the position and the difficult task of the psychiatric expert witness in legal proceedings. It also presents a case-law research on the Supreme Court final judgments in criminal proceedings dealing with psychopathic perpetrators of serious criminal offences, namely murder and aggravated murder, and describes the cooperation of legal authorities and psychiatrists in such proceedings, and give examples of reasonings of final judgements.
In conclusion, the authors emphasize the need to appreciate the fact that our knowledge about psychopathy is still wanting. Awareness of these limitations should render us more careful when it comes to diagnostic assessment of these persons, as well as their penal and/or medical management.
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Notes
- 1.
The development of forensic psychiatry is directly linked to the historical development of psychiatry and legal science and has taken place in accordance with the laws of the historical development of civilization and society in general. This development was not perpendicular, on the contrary, there were numerous oscillations, ups and downs, advances, and setbacks. Thus, in periods of advanced civilization, culture, science, especially medicine (end of Ancient Age and end of the Middle Ages), people with mental illness were treated relatively humanely, as opposed to the period of scientific darkness, Christian dogmatism (5th – 15th ct.) when treatment of the mentally ill was cruel, inhumane, pervaded by physical torture and led to their physical destruction. For more on the historical development of the legal status of mentally incapable persons, see Kozarić-Kovačić et al. (2005) pp.12–20.
- 2.
Amongst the most important are: WHO Resolution EB130.R8 on Global Burden of Mental Disorders and the Need for a Comprehensive, Coordinated Response from Health and Social Sectors at the Country Level of 20th Jan. 2012; V. COE Resolution 1946 (2013) on Equal access to health care of 26th Jun., 2013.; V. COEU Resolution (2000/C 218/03) on Action on Health Determinants of 29th Jun., 2000.; UN General Assembly Resolution 65/238 on Scope, Modalities, Format and Organization of the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases of 24th Dec., 2010.
- 3.
Health Care Act, Official Gazette 100/2018.
- 4.
Criminal Code, Official Gazette 125/2011, 144/2012, 56/2015, 61/2015, 101/2017 and 118/2018.
- 5.
Criminal Procedure Act, Official Gazette 152/2008, 76/2009., 80/2011, 121/2011 cleared text, Official Gazette 91/2012 Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, 143/2012, 56/2013, 145/2013, 152/2014 and 70/2017.
- 6.
Family Act, Official Gazette 103/2015.
- 7.
Social Welfare Act, Official Gazette 157/2013, 152/2014, 99/2015., 52/2016, 16/2017 and 130/2017.
- 8.
Execution of Prison Sentence Act, Official Gazette 128/1999, 55/2000., 59/2000, 129/2000, 59/2001, 67/2001, 11/2002, 190/2003 – cleared text, 76/2007, 27/2008, 83/2009, 18/2011, 48/2011, 125/2011, 56/2013 and 150/2013.
- 9.
Labour Act, Official Gazette 93/2014 and 127/2017.
- 10.
Act on the Protection of Persons with Mental Disorders, Official Gazette 76/2014.
- 11.
Act on the Protection of Persons with Mental Disorders, Official Gazette 111/1997, 27/1998, 128/1999, 79/2002.
- 12.
Act on Amendments to the Act on the Protection of Persons with Mental Disorders, Official Gazette 128/99.
- 13.
Act on Amendments to the Act on the Protection of Persons with Mental Disorders, Official Gazette 79/02.
- 14.
For example, Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, Official Gazette – International Contracts (OG-IC) 13/2003, 18/2003, Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights of 19 October 2005, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, OG-IC 6/2007, 3/2008, 5/2008.
- 15.
For specific cases against the Republic of Croatia v. Đurđević, Z., Ivičević – Karas, E. (Eds.): Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights against the Republic of Croatia in Criminal Matters, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, 2013. On the rights of persons with mental health problems in recent case law The Court has discussed the cases ECtHR, Djordjevic v. Croatia, no. 41526/10, dated 24 July 2012; ECtHR, A.K. and L. v. Croatia, no. 37956/11, of 8 January 2013; ECtHR, M.S. v. Croatia, no. 36337/10, dated 25 April 2013.
- 16.
The Criminal Code of the Republic of Croatia for the so-called ordinary murder (“who kills another”) prescribes a sentence to imprisonment for a term between 5 and 20 years. The crime of aggravated murder is punishable by imprisonment of at least 10 years or long imprisonment (21–40 years). Aggravated murder consists of killing another person in a cruel or treacherous manner, killing a person who is especially vulnerable due to their age, severe physical or mental impairment or pregnancy, killing a close person whom they had previously abused, killing out of self-interest, unscrupulous revenge, hatred or other petty motives, killing for committing or concealing another crime or killing an official in connection with their performing their official duty (Articles 110 and 111 of the Criminal Code).
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Acknowledgement
The research for this chapter was made possible with the financial support of the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) based on the project Classification and Explanations of Antisocial Personality Disorder and Moral and Legal Responsibility in the Context of the Croatian Mental Health and Care Law (CEASCRO) (contract number HRZZ-2013-11-8071).
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Šendula Jengić, V., Grozdanić, V., Hodak, J. (2022). Psychopaths – A “Tough Nut” of Forensic Psychiatry Practice in the Republic of Croatia. In: Malatesti, L., McMillan, J., Šustar, P. (eds) Psychopathy. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82454-9_5
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