How is the ADHD Treatment Considered in the Spanish Legal System?

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

The frequent diagnosis of ADHD in childhood and its relation to the disruptive and antisocial behavior in the adolescence and adulthood, has facilitated the contact between these individuals and Justice System. Once inside, and after the offence, the main worried is established in the identification the Courts have made with ADHD and other pathologies such as ODD, CD or APD, and the consequences or effects that this relation might entail. A jurisprudential analysis on the assessment of criminal responsibility based on cognition and volition of the individual with ADHD reflects that all these individuals with any kind of those pathologies are treated in the same direction. The Spanish Criminal Law and the Spanish Penitentiary System act without distinction with all of these pathologies, which result in similar punitive effects. All of this produces relevant consequences in the ADHD intervention and prevention, whose symptoms are not as hazardous as in the other clinical disorders.

Authors

• David Lorenzo Morillas Fernandez, University of Mrucia (Spain)

• Marta M. Aguilar Carceles, University of Murcia