Article ID: CBB548809320

Epilepsy, Criminality, and Care during the Nineteenth Century (2020)

unapi

During the nineteenth century some doctors claimed that crime and epilepsy were linked. This paper explores whether this influenced how people with epilepsy were treated in the Australian criminal justice system. Overall, there is no evidence that it adversely affected sentencing decisions or the treatment of prisoners. Doctors occasionally pursued the insanity defence for cases involving epilepsy and homicide, ostensibly to avoid the death penalty. In South Australian prisons, care was rudimentary for people with epilepsy, but improved in tandem with legal reform. The close association between gaol and lunatic asylum also provided prisoners with access to better treatment. I argue that despite stigmatising language, the needs of people with epilepsy were recognised in prisons and their treatment was humane.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB548809320/

Similar Citations

Article Victoria M. Nagy; Alana J. Piper; (2020)
The Health and Medical Needs of Victoria's Older Female Prisoners, 1860–1920 (/isis/citation/CBB919561721/)

Article Ciara Breathnach; (2020)
Capital Punishment in Irish Prisons, 1868–1901 (/isis/citation/CBB467297063/)

Chapter Mary Gibson; (2019)
Cesare Lombroso and the Gendered Prison (/isis/citation/CBB059362876/)

Article Louella McCarthy; Kathryn Weston; Stephen Hampton; (2020)
Governing Prisoners’ Health: The Development of the Prison Medical Service in New South Wales, 1840–1900 (/isis/citation/CBB177897813/)

Article Cesar, Tiago da Silva; (2015)
The (In)salubrity of Prison Life and Other Causes of Death in Porto Alegre Prison, 1855--1888 (/isis/citation/CBB001552752/)

Article Brasier, Angeline; (2010)
Prisoners' Bodies: Methods and Advances in Convict Medicine in the Transportation Era (/isis/citation/CBB001232075/)

Thesis Charleroy, Margaret Lynn; (2013)
Penitentiary Practice: Healthcare and Medicine in Minnesota State Prison, 1855--1930 (/isis/citation/CBB001567538/)

Article Bartlett, Peter; (2001)
Legal Madness in the Nineteenth Century (/isis/citation/CBB000770463/)

Thesis Courtney Elizabeth Thompson; (2015)
Criminal Minds: Medicine, Law, and the Phrenological Impulse in America, 1830-1890 (/isis/citation/CBB595020617/)

Article Peloso, Paolo Francesco; Dening, Tom; (2009)
The Abolition of Capital Punishment: Contributions from Two Nineteenth-Century Italian Psychiatrists (/isis/citation/CBB000932519/)

Article Rosagemma Ciliberti; (2023)
Experiences from the past. Comparative research between hospital archive sources and human remains (/isis/citation/CBB741987012/)

Book Rosamaria Alibrandi; (2022)
Medicina Forense e criminalistica nel crinale del moderno (sec. XVI-XIX) (/isis/citation/CBB291215487/)

Book Burney, Ian; (2006)
Poison, Detection, and the Victorian Imagination (/isis/citation/CBB000772050/)

Article Filippo Maria Sposini; (2020)
At the Borders of the Average Man: Adolphe Quêtelet on Mental, Moral, and Criminal Monstrosities (/isis/citation/CBB294903530/)

Authors & Contributors
Alibrandi, Rosamaria
Weston, Kathryn M.
Fatović-Ferenčić, Stella
Sposini, Filippo Maria
Ciliberti, Rosagemma
Hampton, Stephen
Concepts
Criminology
Medicine and law
Prisons
Medicine
Health care
Mental disorders and diseases
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
17th century
16th century
Places
Australia
New South Wales (Australia)
Italy
United States
Norway
Europe
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment