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Criminal Justice and Behavior
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Hospitalization Versus Imprisonment and the Insanity Plea

Marvin W. Kahn

University of Arizona

Lawrence Raifman

University of Arizona

Insanity as a legal defense for criminal acts has been widely criticized, most tellingly on the grounds that commitment to a mental hospital when found insane results in longer incarceration than would imprisonment for the crime. Forty-three individuals who invoked an insanity plea to the charge of murder—about one-third of whom were found to be legally insane and were hospitalized and the other two-thirds were found sane and imprisoned—were followed up some 23 years later. There was no significant difference in the mean length of incarceration. For both groups it was slightly over 11 years. These data do not support the contention that being found not guilty by reason of insanity leads to longer incarceration than being found sane.

Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 8, No. 4, 483-490 (1981)
DOI: 10.1177/009385488100800406
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