Hartvig Pål, Rosenqvist Randi, Stang Hans Jakob
Kompetansesenter for sikkerhets-, fengsels- og rettspsykiatri for Helseregion Øst og Helseregion Sør, Aker universitetssykehus, 0320 Oslo.
Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2003 Jun 26;123(13-14):1831-4.
Automatism in criminal cases is a medical, legal and ethical challenge in most countries, as it often leads to acquittal in criminal cases. In Norway it is also a semantic problem; the term "unconsciousness" is used in criminal law in a meaning that differs from its normal sense of coma.
In the years 1981-2000 the conclusion "unconsciousness"/automatism was reached in 42 cases by forensic psychiatrists. We have scored their assessments regarding demographic, social, criminological and psychiatric variables in the felons.
The main reasons for concluding that automatism was present were: toxic (mainly alcohol) in 64%, psychogenic in 24%, and organic in 12% of the cases. The two most frequent crimes in the sample were manslaughter (29%) and intoxicated driving (21%). In 33% of cases the court did not return an acquittal based on automatism. In 29 % of the cases we disagree with, and in a further 36% we are in doubt about, the conclusions reached by the forensic psychiatrists.
Many assessments were of insufficient quality; this may give rise to questions regarding equal treatment under criminal law. We propose some changes that are called for to Norwegian legislation and practice in the field.
在大多数国家，刑事案件中的自动行为是一个医学、法律和伦理挑战，因为它常常导致刑事案件无罪释放。在挪威，这也是一个语义问题；刑法中使用的“无意识”一词的含义与其昏迷的正常意义不同。
在1981年至2000年期间，法医精神病学家在42起案件中得出了“无意识”/自动行为的结论。我们对他们关于重罪犯的人口统计学、社会、犯罪学和精神病学变量的评估进行了评分。
得出存在自动行为结论的主要原因是：64%的案件为中毒（主要是酒精），24%为心因性，12%为器质性。样本中最常见的两项罪行是过失杀人（29%）和醉酒驾驶（21%）。在33%的案件中，法院没有基于自动行为做出无罪判决。在29%我们不同意的案件中，以及在另外36%我们存疑的案件中，法医精神病学家得出的结论。
许多评估质量不足；这可能引发刑法中平等对待方面的问题。我们提议对挪威该领域的立法和实践进行一些必要的修改。
