Psychiatry in military courts : influence on verdicts

Abstract EN

Objectives : to evaluate the influence of psychiatric opinion on the verdicts made by military courts, regarding servicemen offenders referred for mental assessment.

Methods : the study involved 44 servicemen detainees in the military prison, who were referred to the psychiatric ward in the Royal Jordanian Medical Services (RJMSs), upon court order, for psychiatric evaluation and reporting, in a period of 44 months.

Reports were prepared and presented in courts where mental state and capacity of all defendants were discussed.

Verdicts were revealed and compared to those of a control group of prison population who had no psychiatric referrals.

Results: There was a statistically significant reduction in the length of imprisonment sentence of the study group compared with the control group.

It was found that referees who had no psychopathology received also a lesser level of punishment than the control sample.

Psychiatric diagnosis was found in 80% of the referred offenders.

It was found that most referrals made by military courts were for those who absconded from the army.

Conclusions : clinical opinion in courts seems to be beneficial in decreasing the level of punishment.