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psychopathic personality

Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court

Definitions from Case Law

From 309 U.S. 270 - State of Minnesota Pearson v. Probate Court of Ramsey County Minn · 1940Most cited · 622 citing opinions

There must be proof of a 'habitual course of misconduct in sexual matters' on the part of the persons against whom a proceeding under the statute is directed, which has shown 'an utter lack of power to control their sexual impulses', and hence that they 'are likely to attack or otherwise inflict injury, loss, pain or other evil on the objects of their uncontrolled and uncontrollable desire'. These underlying conditions, calling for evidence of past conduct pointing to probable consequences, are as susceptible of proof as many of the criteria constantly applied in prosecutions for crime.

How often courts cite the cases defining “psychopathic personality”

194019601980200020202030181

Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “psychopathic personality” — 1,017 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.

All 2 definitions, chronological · 1940–1967

  1. The Congress used the phrase 'psychopathic personality' not in the clinical sense, but to effectuate its purpose to exclude from entry all homosexuals and other sex perverts.