"In this new interpretation of a significant but neglected area of jurisprudence, a leading authority in mental health law provides innovative, normatively and pragmatically justified solutions to enduring problems associated with criminal responsibility, the protection of society from dangerous individuals, and the concept of autonomy. Using famous cases such as those of John Hinckley, Andrea Yates, and Theodore Kaczynski, Christopher Slobogin describes and critically analyzes the insanity defense and related doctrines, sentencing statutes that recognize a role for mental disability, commitment laws that authorize indeterminate incapacitation of dangerous offenders (e.g., "sexual predators"), and rules that require competency to participate in the criminal process."--BOOK JACKET.