"I only work four days a month".

Today, in my Psych of Law class, I learned that PMS is a legitimate excuse for assaulting an officer. Our last topic of the year has been the use of the insanity defense in the courtroom, and apparently there is precedence for women to use PMS as a kind of "insanity defense". Apparently, the first case of this in the U.S. was sometime in the last decade:

A woman was driving home from a party after having had too many drinks. Incidentally, she also had her two children in the car. A traffic cop stopped her for her erratic driving, and when the officer came up to the window he noticed a strong odor of alcohol. He asked the woman for her driver's license and registration -- which she refused to give him. She pointed out that she was a doctor and did not deserve to be treated in this "disrespectful manner". She then slapped his hand away instead of giving him her information. When he asked her to get out of the car and put her hands on her head (in order to administer a field sobriety test) she kicked him in the groin. She then began to berate him further, using foul language and citing once again that she was a doctor. Eventually, the officer was able to get her to take a breathalyzer test and found that she was, indeed, driving under the influence.

In court, the woman contested that she was PMS-ing and therefore was highly irritable. She also had another doctor testify that alcohol is all wonky during that particular part of the menstrual cycle (true). Based on this, she was found not guilty of assault and drunk driving. To which I say: whatever. I don't care if PMS does make you more susceptible to the negative effects of alcohol -- she's a doctor, she should know that and not drink as much and then get in a car with her children and drive. WHATEVER.

While I know that some people are much more affected by PMS than others -- it should not really excuse people from assault! All those people who assault others in crimes of passion are probably "irritable" also since they might have just found their spouse in bed with somebody else. Even people suffering from premenstraul dysphoric disorder (PMDD) -- which is basically PMS x 100 -- would hopefully know about their disorder by the time they have kids and would know that they shouldn't consume alcohol.

Bah! Incidentally, another interesting fact: did you know that of the crimes committed by women 39% AND 40% (for a grand total of 79%) of the crimes were committed while they were PMS-ing? A significant difference! The cycles were divided into four stages so the random distribution should have been 25% across the board...

Still, I would like to think that I don't get irritable so much as emotional during those four days of the month.