A Critical Viewpoint About the Legal Analysis of the Attention-Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the Spanish Criminal Justice System

Abstract

This paper focuses its aim in the explanation on the link between the Hyperactivity Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD) and the future criminal career by the analysis of how Spanish Courts understand this disorder. The ADHD diagnosis is characterized by attention-deficit, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, but there are some external symptoms like hyperactivity-impulsivity, mainly impulsiveness, which is the most related to the criminal career. This relationship is frequently explained by the clinical comorbidity or concurrence, where the presence of other severe mental disorders could explain the link between ADHD and the antisocial behaviour and its contact with the Criminal Justice System. In this regard, one of the main worries concern to the fact of how understanding this disorder in order to assess the criminal responsibility and raises a reduction in the subsequent criminal sanction. KeywordsAttention-Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); Clinical Comorbidity; Criminal Responsibility; Impulsivity; Criminal Career; Spanish Courts Conceptual DelimitationADHD is considered the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder worldwide, whose nuclear symptomatology is established by the lack of attention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. Specifically, with the meaning of psychopathologies of the neurodevelopment, it refers to the establishment of certain illnesses with more probability in certain stages of life and the possible continuity of this kind of disorders and their symptomatology in later stages.Furthermore, the inclusion under the neurodevelopmental disorders in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), let us appreciate the importance given to biological aspects. It has been considered that have been noticed by different research studies when they associate ADHD with an atypical brain development [1,2].The prevalence indicates that, in Europe, approximately 1 of 20 children and adolescents are affected by ADHD [3], although some studies indicate that in the first years the rate can be estimated on average 5% all over the world [4], or even define it as the prevalent neurobiological condition that affects the 4.4% of the general population [5]. Following DSM-5, the estimation would be on average 5% in the first years, while the prevalence in adult population would be represented in the 2.5%. Nevertheless, we must considerer that general prevalence of ADHD decreases with the years [6].ADHD is considered as a multifaceted disorder that can have a significant impact in different aspects of the individual's quality of life, such as academic achievements, social functioning (i.e., peer rejection), or even the involvement in the criminal career. Regarding to this last point, the hyperactive and impulsive signs define the most ADHD subtype related to behavioral problems, being the external symptomatology the main cause of clinical comorbidity. So, if we know that 50% of children and adolescents with ADHD will continue to have ADHD as adults and that ADHD may p...