The Use of Psychological Expertise in the Assessment Process and Definitions of Responsibility

The problem of evaluating the personality of suspects, which runs alongside that of individualising sentencing, is at the centre of current preoccupations known as “the new social defence’.” This article is concerned with the use of experts in a particular context, that of cases at the higher criminal courts, where the work of experts is built into a chain of different procedural steps and where the personality of the suspect is considered by several different actors. The exchanges around these questions are not so much concerned with defining dangerousness or treatability, as the moral aspect of the crime. This call for expertise shows that, in this process, those involved are constructing practical definitions of responsibility.