Batman, or the Dark Knight, has to deal with criminal insanity above all.
Criminal insanity is a hairy issue from a legal and social standpoint.
Prosecuting criminals who use the insanity defense is challenging, since many people empathize with the judgment-making difficulties the mentally handicapped face.
Batman's nemeses such as Harley Quinn, Penguin, Two-Face, and Ra's al Ghul exhibit differing degrees and forms of criminal insanity even if their terrorism is politically-minded (i.e., Ra's eco-terrorism).
When we watch legal proceedings on American television, we might come up with our personalized images of justice or become intrigued by jurisprudence-romance stories/books/cinema:
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"Your honor, here before you sits a proverbial army of darkness deserving of punishment, not leniency by insanity defense:
1. Archibald Stone (aka, Red Hood) --- a bank robber who always kidnaps a female bank teller from every bank he hits
2. Harleen Quinzel (aka, Harley Quinn) --- not only did she entreat the mayor with extra-marital sexual favors in return for bribes, she then randomly killed the mayor's wife, apparently just to prove the mayor was a womanizer
3. Thomas Hewitt (aka, Leatherface) --- this chainsaw-wielding serial killer only preys on police officers, which makes this prosecutor wonder just what his insanity defense would be
4. Harvey Dent (aka, Two-Face) --- this former Gotham DA-turned-vigilante believes he has a right to administer extreme forms of punishment to both criminals and police officers
These four misanthropes deserve at least life-in-prison and we request serious review before granting leniency by the insanity defense!"
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For some reason, Batman seems to be motivated by taking on such cases. Is there any other comic book superhero who focuses so much specifically on criminal insanity?
Why is criminal insanity so scary, and why are images in cinema/literature about hysterical gangs in a crime-world evocative of legal hellmouths?
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