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Nobody's child, a tragedy, a trial, and a history of the insanity defense, Susan Vinocour - hardcover
The resource Nobody's child, a tragedy, a trial, and a history of the insanity defense, Susan Vinocour - hardcover represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in DC Public Library System.
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Author
Summary
  • "A powerful and humane exploration of the "insanity defense, " through one heartbreaking case. A three-year-old boy dies, having apparently fallen while trying to reach a bag of sugar on a high shelf. His grandmother stands accused of second-degree murder. Psychologist Susan Nordin Vinocour agrees to evaluate the defendant, to determine whether the impoverished and mentally ill woman is competent to stand trial. Vinocour soon finds herself pulled headlong into a series of difficult questions, beginning with: Was the defendant legally insane on the night in question? As she wades deeper into the story, Vinocour traces the legal definition of insanity back nearly two hundred years, when our understanding of the human mind was in its infancy. "Competency" and "insanity, " she explains, are creatures of legal definition, not psychiatric reality, and in criminal law, "insanity" has become a luxury of the rich and white. With passion, clarity, and heart, Vinocour examines the troubling intersection of mental health issues and the law"--, Provided by publisher
Table of contents
  • Prologue -- The Crime -- The Trial -- The Punishment -- Epilogue
Language
  • eng
Literary form
  • non fiction
Work

Publication
Copyright
Edition
  • First edition.
Note
  • "The names and identifying details of many people who appear in this book have been changed. Dialogue has been reconstructed based on the author's contemporaneous notes, her recollection of events, interviews, and trial evidence."
Physical description
  • xii, 338 pages, 24 cm
Isbn
  • 9780393651928
Instance

Item

Subject
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