e demands on him or her),vulnerability (likelihood of a maladaptive response), and coping skills (techniques that helphim or her deal with difficulties/stress) (5). Consider the recent school shootings as anexample. Students who are teased and bullied are experiencing stress. Some studentshave low vulnerability and choose to talk about the situation with a parent or teacher,which is a good coping strategy. Other students may have high vulnerability and poorcoping skills. These students are more likely to respond maladaptively by taking a gun toschool and shooting the classmates who bullied them. Maladaptive behavior that leads to criminal conduct has been around since thebeginning of time. The Greeks assigned a guardian to each mentally ill person for life. The guardian was held responsible for the actions of that person. If a mentally ill personcommitted a crime, his or her guardian was punished. In medieval times, peopleconsidered insanity to be a severe punishment from God. An insane person was thoughtto be separate from God and without any will or reason, so he or she could not bepunished for committing a crime. The idea of using an expert witness to verify themental status of an alleged criminal began during the witchcraft trials, between 1400 and1700. Europe has never held the mentally ill responsible for their crimes. English law,however, has always held the mentally ill responsible for their crimes. To the English,intent and motive were not the issues. The MNaghten case changed the way the Englishviewed legal insanity (4). One of the oldest, and perhaps most famous, definitions of legal insanity is theMNaghten rule, written in Britain in 1843. Daniel MNaghten murdered Prime MinisterSir Robert Peel's secretary in England in 1843. MNaghten claimed that during themurder, he believed it was Sir Robert Peel he was killing. At the trial, MNaghten'slawyer convinced the judge that MNaghten suffered from a...
