Epilepsy and Criminal Law

Automatic episodes of aggressive or violent behaviour may occur during or after an epileptic fit. Epileptic automatisms are regarded by the law as ‘insane automatisms’. A person who commits a crime during the course of a seizure is therefore legally insane and must be committed to a psychiatric hospital. The law of insanity is inappropriate when applied to epileptic automatisms. A change in the law is therefore necessary to remove epileptic offenders from the legal ambit of insanity, and to save them the threat of detention in a mental hospital as a consequence of their crime.