Orville Taylor | Not justice, it is madness

As we speak, there is a 100,000-plus petition for a 21-year-old Jamaica-born man, residing in the United Kingdom since he was four years old, to not be deported to the country that he doesn’t know. Osime Brown was convicted under one of those ‘ketch kwashee and ketch him shut’ statutes, not unlike our anti-gang statutes by which a number of gang members were convicted last week. However, there is more than meets the eye.

The British Joint Enterprise Law, a canon, regarded as deeply racist, allows for the conviction of persons other than the actual individual who carries out a violent criminal act, if it can be established that they could reasonably have foreseen the act prior to its being committed by their associates. As simple as that sounds, it might not be as clear-cut, because if truth be told, lawyers, including judges, are not experts and are generally untrained in clinically and thus accurately measuring the relationship between the mens rea and the actus reus.

True, these are two expressions within the legal discipline, but only trained behavioural scientists, such as psychologists, can approximate this kind of causal relationship, and even they are sometimes very wrong in an imperfect world. Jurisprudence has a long history and it is not unusual for modern-day attorneys to cite cases so old that they might have water damage from the biblical flood. Yet, these common law principles have been binding.

However, psychology is a young discipline whose first scholarly works were published after my paternal grandparents were born in the 1800s. Jurisprudence has not fully appreciated the importance of psychology.

Brown is autistic, and no, it is not the Jamaican mispronunciation meaning that he paints and draws very well, although many persons with the condition actually do so. It is a brain disorder, which cannot be mapped like schizophrenia or bipolar illness, by brain scans, EEGs or any medical imaging. In fact, an autistic brain looks ‘normal’ when measured by all the technology available.

Thus, to diagnose autism, there is the need to administer a number of tried and true tests, not unlike psychometrics. Unless a person is severely autistic, one cannot readily notice this, because these individuals do not have external manifestations such as people with Down’s Syndrome.

LACK SOCIAL SKILLS

Autism comes from the Greek word ‘autos’ which means ‘self’, and it is a developmental disorder that prevents the individual from interacting with others in the ‘outside world.’ Being largely ‘self-directed’ autistic people, in extreme cases, do not speak, or communicate verbally with others. In milder cases, they may converse and even engage in complex activities. However, they often lack social skills and tend not to comprehend the impact of their own actions or what others are doing.

For example, a high-performing autistic who is an architect, professor or engineer, might be totally floored by the expression, “she is dropping legs” in a party. Generally, they do not understand puns and other double entendres. Therefore, they might miss the humour in my comments that the Chief Justice is using his Sykes or there is something about Teacher Reid that wasn’t right. Simply put, autistic persons are typically not completely aware of the consequences and connections of action around them, even if they are participants in them.

In Jamaica, around one out of every 68 persons or 1.47 per cent of the population is autistic. Reputed psychiatrist of blessed memory, Freddie Hickling, remarked that there is an overall mental illness rate of between 10 and 15 per cent for young persons. Given that mental illness is on a spectrum, the numbers are likely much higher.

Before we criticise the Brits though, let us note that like the UK and USA, our courts use pseudo-psychological benchmarks in determining if accused persons are ‘fit to plead.’

However, behavioural scientist Penelope Brown and others noted that, “findings of ‘unfitness’ are so rare that there is considerable professional unease concerning the utility of the current subjective assessment process. As a result, mentally disordered defendants may be subjected unfairly to criminal trials.” There are a few cases in recent Jamaican memory where a schizophrenic was, in the ‘wisdom’ of the court, fit to plead and fit to be found guilty, although good psychology would argue that the condition is constant and ongoing and not simply an event or episode.

Of course, the obverse can be true here. At last count, more than 200 persons are held in our prisons without being subjected to a trial because of their unfitness to plead.

What we need is a new paradigm in the interface between law and behavioural sciences. In fact, it is my view that all members of the justice system, from police officers to the judges, should all be tested by not just polygraphs but, importantly, by psychometrics as well.

Bet you we will see a better appreciation for mental illness then.

- Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.