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Does culture impact on notions of criminal responsibility and action? The case of spirit possession

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Transcultural Psychiatry

Published online on

Abstract

Multicultural societies such as the United Kingdom are host to people with diverse belief systems and behavioral norms. Whilst a country requires that all members of society conform to standardized legal requirements, cases arise that involve certain complexities related to the cultural or religious context in which a certain action was committed. This paper addresses the impact of culture on notions of criminal responsibility and action. Through a case study of a recent event in the United Kingdom, we explore whether a cultural defense is relevant for contextualizing incidents in which an individual commits a criminal action during an alleged period of spirit possession From this analysis, we suggest that using a cultural defense can aid understanding of an individual’s relationship to the society that he or she identifies with and facilitate the practice of justice in a multicultural society.