Psychiatry, murder and M'Naghten in colonial context: The place for forensic psychiatric knowledge in East Africa (360G-Wellcome-086436_Z_08_Z)

This research aims to complement some work I did in Africa in January 2008 on the role and status of psychiatry in the insanity defence in colonial East Africa. The aim of this research is to evaluate the treatment of psychiatric knowledge in murder trials in which insanity defences were raised. This research will include examining trial transcripts, (especially that of Charles Ross; National Archive, CO/533/427/5), as well as medical sources (East African Medical Journal), the press (including trial reports in the East African Standard), and legal sources (especially the East African Law Reports). In addition, there is some archival correspondence at the Wellcome Library (Eugenics Society papers) about a prominent insanity trial from colonial Kenya (Ross, 1932) by the leading East African psychiatrist, HL Gordon, which encapsulated some of his eugenic arguments concerning feeble-mindedness in relation to criminal responsibility. Such sources are not available in Scotland. This research will be presented at both medical history and socio-legal studies conferences, and published in a number of academic journals and in an edited collection. It will form the basis of a larger project on this topic for which I will be seeking funding.