The Impact of Mental Disorders on the Criminal Liability of First-String Crimes

One of the important issues in criminal law is the concept of criminal liability. The commission of a crime in a situation that is capable of attributing to the offender, will result in the establishment of a criminal liability and punishment unless the offender is unable to bear the criminal liability for some reasons. If a person is incapable while performing a criminal act for some reasons such as a mental illness and does not have the enough knowledge and understanding of the criminal concept of his or her behavior, then would not be considered as a criminal and would not be punished. Therefore, according to the Islamic penal code published in 1392, mental illnesses are diseases that affect mental health and deprive the willing of a person, put the person in a state of insanity and take the criminal responsibility from him. But considering that all mental diseases do not completely eliminate the willing, it is very important to determine that how much does a person suffer from a mental disorder and therefore requires the knowledge and accuracy of the judges to examine the exact amount of person's illness and its' impact on willing and not be excluded from the scope of justice. Also, the innovation of the Islamic Penal Code 1392, as well as the laws of other countries, is the usage of the concept mental disorder instead of the word insanity and broadening the range of effective factors in criminal behavior that is a step toward identifying a diminished responsibility. However, the only legal effect of mental disorder remains in the field of insanity.