irresistible impulse test


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Related to irresistible impulse test: Criminal insanity, substantial capacity test

irresistible impulse test

Control test, volition test Forensic psychiatry A test used by some states to define a person as insane under the law if, due to a mental disorder, the defendant was unable to control her action or conform her conduct to the law. See Insanity defense. Cf Durham rule, M'Naughten test, Substantial capacity test, Temporary insanity.
McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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There are many criticisms of the Irresistible Impulse Test. When
The court went on to reject the Irresistible Impulse test, and apply the
INSANE: JAMES HOLMES, CLARK V. ARIZONA, AND AMERICA'S INSANITY DEFENSE
The first prong--the appreciation of criminality--is a substantial revision of the M'Naghten test, collapsing its redundant prongs, substituting the more lenient 'appreciate' for the stricter know," and allowing jurisdictions the option to resolve the moral-legal question by inserting either "criminality" or "wrongfulness."(88) The second prong--the conforming of conduct--restates the irresistible impulse test but avoids the ambiguous word "impulse."(89) The Model Penal Code also modifies both of its prongs with "lacks substantial capacity" and thus departs from both earlier tests in requiring less than total incapacitation.(90) As a result, the Model Penal Code test is broade-r-and some would say more realistic--than the earlier tests.(91)
Black rage and the criminal law: a principled approach to a polarized debate

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