1. Diminished Responsibility
UNIT 14
Diminished Responsibility
Snježana Husinec, PhD

2. Diminished Responsibility
= an unbalanced state of mind which is considered to make a person less answerable for a crime
= such abnormality of mind that substantially
impairs a person’s responsibility in committing or being a party to an alleged violation
AE diminished capacity

3. Diminished responsibility
What are the general defences that can be used to absolve from ciriminal liability?
Why do you think diminished responsibility isn’t one of them?
Read the text on p. 134 and check your answer.

4. Homicide Act 1957
Study an excerpt from section 2 of the Homicide Act 1957 and answer the question in ex. III

5. R v Dietschmann (2003)
Study the facts of the case from the judgement of the House of Lords on p. 135/136 and extract the following information:
Defendant:______________
Victim:___________
Description of criminal act:________________
Mental state:________________

6. R v Dietschmann (2003) BEFORE THE APPEAL – additional information
The appellant had been having a relationship with his aunt who was much older than him and was a drug addict. The appellant was sentenced to imprisonment for an offence he had committed and the relationship continued during his stay in prison. She wrote to him every day and visited him. Unfortunately his aunt died whilst he was in prison. A month before she died, the aunt gave him a watch. He reacted badly to the death of his aunt and had attempted suicide.
He was released from prison a month after her death and began drinking heavily. He was also prescribed prozac by his doctor. Two weeks after his release, he was drinking with two men at the home where he was staying. They were dancing and the watch given to him by his aunt fell off his arm. The appellant accused Nicholas Davies of breaking it. He then punched and kicked him to death in a violent attack. He was convicted of murder and appealed.

7. R v Dietschmann (2003) What did the Court of Appeal decide?
Do ex. V, VI and VII.

8. Translate into Croatian.
to impair mental responsibility =
to plead the defence of diminished = responsibility
to absolve from criminal liability =
to satisfy the court =

9. White-collar crime
= a wide variety of crimes, but they all typically involve crime committed through deceit and motivated by financial gain.
The most common white collar crimes are:
various types of fraud (eg. securities fraud, insurance fraud)
embezzlement,
tax evasion,
money laundering,
Ponzi schemes, etc.

10. White-collar crime in Croatia – Vocabulary practice
Fill in the gaps with appropriate terms and expressions from below. state attorney - counterfeiting - searched on warrants - Chief State Prosecutor's Office - raids - remand - pre-trial detention - suspected white-collar crime - preliminary investigation - charges Police arrest top Agrokor executives, owner said to be out of Croatia ZAGREB (Croatia), October 16 - Top executives of Croatia's Agrokor have been arrested on Monday morning under a investigation into ____________________ and ________________ in the ailing concern, according to a live-stream of the police action on HRT public broadcaster. Ivica Todoric, owner of Croatia's largest privately-held group, is said to be out of the country. Police ____________ involving some 300 police officers are currently underway at an estimated 60 locations in the city, according to the HRT live-stream.

11. White collar crime in Croatia – Vocabulary practice
Among those arrested on Monday morning are former financial executive at Agrokor, Ivan Crnjac; senior executive vice-president Ljerka Puljic - Todoric's closest associate; Todoric's son-in-law and executive vice-president for central procurement and corporate services, Hrvoje Balent; as well as several other members of the concern's management and supervisory boards. 
According to local media reports, the _______________ will decide as early as Monday whether to propose to _________________ the arrested persons. If the investigating judge decides to impose ______________________ , the persons may be held for up to 12 months without _____________ being laid, according to law. 
The ______________________ (DORH) announced on Monday that a ____________________ of suspected white-collar crime and counterfeiting is underway in Zagreb. DORH did not disclose the name of the company under investigation but noted that 15 persons were currently being _________________ issued by an investigating judge.