Exploring Public Understandings of and Sentiments Toward the Not Criminally Responsible Defence

The Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) defence applies when a mental disorder prevented a defendant from appreciating the nature or wrongfulness of their actions. Yet the public remains critical toward individuals adjudicated NCR due to a perceived innate risk. Many studies have investigated negative attitudes toward the analogous Insanity defence in the United States, but these attitudes have been scarcely investigated in a Canadian context. The present qualitative study will investigate Reddit threads discussing R. v. Cunneen, a recent Canadian NCR case, to 1) explore what factual information versus misinformation is discussed about the NCR defence online and 2) investigate sentiments toward the NCR defence in the context of the Cunneen case. Threads with original posts referring to the Cunneen NCR verdict will be extracted from Canadian subreddits within a two-month timeframe and analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Findings may inform the development of educational interventions aimed at reducing public stigma.