Chapter 6 deals with issues that repeatedly trouble society. How much awareness and understanding of your actions should you have before society can punish you for your actions? How old should an offender be before we punish that offender as an adult? What circumstances justify or excuse criminal actions?

1. There have been four tests to determine the “sanity” or “insanity” of an offender. For this question, please read this article regarding the case Jennifer Bigham: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/mom-accused-drowning-girl-wins-insanity-defense-now/story?id=18315734 (Links to an external site.)

Based on that information (no further research is required), please list the four tests for insanity and pick the one that YOU feel would be most helpful to the defense of the case. In your analysis, please give one or two sentences to explain why you feel each of the other three tests would not help raise a valid defense for this defendant. Please limit your answer to one double-spaced page and, as before, no APA formalities are required. (I do, however, recommend using the resource in this module, The Insanity Defense Among the States. In my opinion, that webpage gives a better explanation of the differences between the tests in less space and more simple terms.)

2. Consider juvenile offenders and the ages at which their criminal responsibility is assumed to exist. Please list the THREE age thresholds (below adulthood which occurs, for criminal liability, in most states at 18) used in America for juveniles now, what level of capacity to commit crimes the juveniles would have at each age, and if you agree on the age at which offenders are no longer considered juveniles but are now considered adults and can be punished as adults. Please limit your answer to one double-spaced page and, as above, no APA formalities are required. 

3. In a case I had back in Massachusetts, a young man of drinking age consumed sufficient alcohol such that he suffered alcohol poisoning. He was taken to the Emergency Room and, when regaining some level of consciousness, grabbed the breast of a female nurse attending to him so hard that he left bruises. He has no memory of being taken to the hospital or assaulting the nurse. He was charged with the offense of Indecent Assault & Battery (https://codes.findlaw.com/ma/part-iv-crimes-punishments-and-proceedings-in-criminal-cases-ch-263-280/ma-gen-laws-ch-265-sect-13h.html).  (Links to an external site.)Will his medically documented level of intoxication provide any defense to this crime?

4. Many drivers claim that police officers who hide their cruisers to catch speeding motorists are committing entrapment. What would you say to someone who claimed that to avoid paying a ticket for speeding?

5. A family member of yours is kidnapped and the kidnappers want only one thing – to get your family member back unharmed, you must kill Professor Gormley. You do as the kidnapper commands. Will the duress defense you raise to prosecution for murder be successful?