Forensic psychiatric aspects of the treatment of persons found not-guilty-by-reason-of- insanity in the Republic of Croatia

Treatment of the persons found not guilty by reason of insanity for their criminal acts is regulated by the Act on the protection of persons with mental disorders. The first version of this Act was passed at the end of 1997, and entered into force on the 1st of January 1998. The Act has been changed several times, and these changes were mainly regarding outpatient treatment. After criminal procedure is finished, and if the offender is assessed as not guilty by reason of insanity, no penal law sanctions will be applied, but (s)he will be referred to an involuntary treatment in one of the four forensic psychiatric institutions in Croatia (Popovaca, Vrapce, Ugljan and Rab, with the total capacity of 380 beds). The treatment can be, according to the current Act, outpatient or inpatient. The authors emphasize key consequences of the before mentioned legal regulations on the forensic psychiatric position of persons found not guilty by reason of insanity, focus on difficulties in enforcement of the Act and present some of their own research results. One contradiction in the Act itself is that person found not guilty by reason of insanity cannot be punished (due to insanity), but on the other side, the maximal duration of treatment is defined by the maximal penal sanction (duration of prison sentence), no matter of the psychopatological state of the person.