Legal Definitions - appreciation test

The appreciation test is a legal standard used in criminal law to determine if a defendant can be found "not guilty by reason of insanity." It is a key component of the insanity defense in the United States, established by the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984.

Under this test, a defendant may be deemed legally insane if, at the time they committed a crime, they suffered from a severe mental disease or defect that prevented them from truly appreciating the wrongfulness of their actions. This means they were unable to understand, in a meaningful way, that what they were doing was morally or legally wrong, not just that they understood the physical act itself.

To succeed with an insanity defense under the appreciation test, the defense must present clear and convincing evidence that the defendant's severe mental condition directly impaired their ability to grasp the wrongfulness of their conduct.

Here are some examples illustrating the appreciation test:

• Example 1: Delusional Self-Defense

  Imagine a person, Mr. Davies, who suffers from severe paranoid schizophrenia. During a profound psychotic episode, he genuinely believes his next-door neighbor is an alien disguised as a human, sent to abduct him. In this delusional state, Mr. Davies attacks his neighbor, believing he is fighting for his life against an extraterrestrial threat. The appreciation test would examine whether Mr. Davies' severe mental illness prevented him from *appreciating* that he was harming an innocent human being and that his actions were legally and morally wrong. If his delusion was so profound that he truly believed he was acting in justified self-defense against a non-human threat, he might not have been able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct as understood by society.

• Example 2: Psychotic Break and Divine Command

  Consider Ms. Chen, who experiences an acute psychotic break and begins to hear voices she believes are divine commands. These voices instruct her to destroy a public monument, telling her it is a "corrupt idol" that must be purified to save humanity. Ms. Chen, acting solely on these perceived divine instructions, vandalizes the monument. The appreciation test would assess whether her severe mental disease (the psychotic break and delusions) rendered her incapable of *appreciating* that her actions constituted illegal destruction of property and were morally wrong according to societal norms. If she genuinely believed she was carrying out a sacred duty for the greater good, completely detached from the conventional understanding of right and wrong, she might satisfy the test.