It would seem it would be an advantage to pretend to be insane to avoid being found guilty so how do they determine if someone is truly insane or just pretending to be?
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Defense attorney here. Several people have correctly pointed out that insanity isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card, although it used to be and in some places is still a significant advantage.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is precisely what you’re asking: *how* to psychiatrists tell when someone is faking it. This phenomenon is known as “malingering,” and exists not just in the criminal justice system, but other arenas, like worker’s comp, where it might be to one’s advantage to fake an illness or play up its symptoms.
There are various techniques to tease out malingering. One is to ask questions that people think they should answer one way, but really shouldn’t. For example, people who hear voices rarely believe that the voices are coming from animals. So you ask that to someone who claims to hear voices, and if he says yes, that’s one data point in favor of malingering rather than genuine psychosis. Obviously, one question isn’t enough, but enough questions like this and you get a pretty good idea.
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