@misc{9227269,
  abstract     = {{The legal term severe mental disorder appears in several areas of Swedish legislation, particularly within criminal law. Moreover, the assessment of insanity and what is today referred to as severe mental disorder can be traced far back in legal history. 

The thesis examines the international legal-historical influences from biblical times until the middle of the 1900s. In the Swedish context, the legal-historical development is examined from the provincial laws to current law. Within the framework of this development, the Swedish Penal Code of 1864 constituted an important step concerning the perception of offenders with severe mental disorders. This can still be discerned in current law, primarily through the present prohibition against imprisonment and the regulation of forensic psychiatric care in Chapter 30, Section 6 and Chapter 31, Section 3 of the Swedish Penal Code respectively. Against this background, the Swedish Penal Code of 1864 constitutes the point of departure for the present study. In the contemporary legal-political debate, the issue has once again been brought to the forefront as the Kristersson Cabinet, at the beginning of 2026, presented a bill concerning preventive detention for repeat offenders at risk of recidivism. The relationship between the proposal and the regulation of severe mental disorder has thereby been brought into focus in the legal discussion. 

Accordingly, questions arise as to how the regulation of severe mental disorder has developed over time, in what manner this development has led to current legislation, and how future legal developments may come to manifest themselves. This likewise constitutes the overarching purpose of the thesis. Particular attention is devoted to the legal-historical development of the regulation, its current structure and underlying motives in current law, as well as future processes of legal change that may be identified. In order to address these issues, both legal-historical and legal-dogmatic methods are applied. In addition, Kaarlo Tuori’s theory of the levels of law, together with the concept of legal culture, is employed as analytical frameworks in order to understand how legal changes relate to deeper and more stable legal principles. 

The thesis demonstrates that the legal development concerning severe mental disorder is characterised by a recurring pendulum movement between humanistic and treatment-oriented periods and more restrictive phases focused on the protection of society. The reforms have been driven by international currents of ideas, transformations within the Schools of criminal law, political shifts in power, and societal events which have functioned as triggering factors for previously prepared reform ambitions. Preventive detention does not emerge as a departure from earlier fundamental principles, but rather as a subsidiary complement subordinated to the previous regulation. Being guilty yet mentally ill has throughout legal history constituted a complex legal balancing exercise, something which appears likely to persist.}},
  author       = {{Alqvist, Axel}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Skyldig men sjuk – Regleringen av allvarlig psykisk störning från 1864 års strafflag till idag}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}