TY - JOUR
T1 - Combat-related PTSD in military court
T2 - A diagnosis in search of a defense
AU - Sparr, Landy F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/3/1
Y1 - 2015/3/1
N2 - As more veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often returns with them. As a result, PTSD has quickly become the most prevalent mental disorder diagnosis among active duty United States (U.S.) military. Although numerous studies have not only validated PTSD but have chronicled its negative behavioral impact, it remains a controversial diagnosis. It is widely diagnosed by all types of mental health professionals for even minimal trauma, and DSM-IV PTSD criteria have wide overlap with other mood and anxiety disorders. This, however, has not stopped PTSD from being used in civilian courts in the U.S. as a mental disorder to establish grounds for mental status defenses, such as insanity, diminished capacity, and self-defense, or as a basis for sentencing mitigation. Not surprisingly, PTSD has recently found its way into military courts, where some defense attorneys are eager to draw upon its understandable and linear etiology to craft some type of mental incapacity defense for their clients. As in the civilian sphere, this has met with mixed success due to relevance considerations. A recent court-martial, U.S. v. Lawrence Hutchins III, has effectively combined all the elemental nuances of PTSD in military court.
AB - As more veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often returns with them. As a result, PTSD has quickly become the most prevalent mental disorder diagnosis among active duty United States (U.S.) military. Although numerous studies have not only validated PTSD but have chronicled its negative behavioral impact, it remains a controversial diagnosis. It is widely diagnosed by all types of mental health professionals for even minimal trauma, and DSM-IV PTSD criteria have wide overlap with other mood and anxiety disorders. This, however, has not stopped PTSD from being used in civilian courts in the U.S. as a mental disorder to establish grounds for mental status defenses, such as insanity, diminished capacity, and self-defense, or as a basis for sentencing mitigation. Not surprisingly, PTSD has recently found its way into military courts, where some defense attorneys are eager to draw upon its understandable and linear etiology to craft some type of mental incapacity defense for their clients. As in the civilian sphere, this has met with mixed success due to relevance considerations. A recent court-martial, U.S. v. Lawrence Hutchins III, has effectively combined all the elemental nuances of PTSD in military court.
KW - Court-Martials
KW - Mental status defenses
KW - PTSD
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijlp.2015.01.017
DO - 10.1016/j.ijlp.2015.01.017
M3 - Article
C2 - 25697713
AN - SCOPUS:84951905691
SN - 0160-2527
VL - 39
SP - 23
EP - 30
JO - International Journal of Law and Psychiatry
JF - International Journal of Law and Psychiatry
ER -