A borderline personality disorder, though not a psychiatric illness, can moderate the weight given to general deterrence in sentencing where the evidence establishes that the disorder caused the offender to react maladaptively, reduced their capacity for calm and rational choices, and contributed to the offending. The onus is on the offender to demonstrate through evidence that the disorder's symptoms and consequences bore upon moral culpability. Manslaughter sentences are an appropriate guide for sentencing arson causing death under s 197A.
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