Expertise, procedure and the possibility of a comparative history of forensic psychiatry in the nineteenth century.

The comparative history of forensic psychiatry may help unravel relations between legal and administrative procedure, medical knowledge and expertise, and social interests, as they determine judgements about the criminal responsibility of the mentally disordered. But little has been done to compare the past or the present under different jurisdictions. This paper, therefore, suggests some points which would encourage such comparisons, and particularly a comparison between France and England in the nineteenth century, for both of which countries there is now a valuable historical literature. It also illustrates the complex interaction of procedure and medical expertise by reference to the case of George Victor Townley (1863).