Examining the Relationship between Criminal Behaviors, Personality Traits, and Law Enforcement Responses for Individuals with Mental Illness (original) (raw)
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Mental disorders and criminal behaviour
The British Journal of Psychiatry, 1995
Background Using improved methods, findings of higher criminality in a psychiatric population were tested. Method An unselected sample of 1265 Swiss in-patients and a matched control group drawn from the general population were studied. Detailed accounts of conviction records served as a measure of criminal behaviour. Results Apart from traffic law violations by men, and violent crimes and sexual offences by women, patients were more frequently registered in all crime categories. However, there were significant differences between the diagnostic groups. Alcoholics and drug users of both sexes had a significantly higher criminality rate. A higher rate was also found among female, but not male, patients suffering from schizophrenia or related disorders and other, mostly organic, disorders. Conclusions Alcoholism and drug abuse contribute significantly to criminal behaviour, independent of sociodemographic factors; however, with a few exceptions, mental disorders such as schizophrenia ...
FREQUENCY OF CRIMINAL ACTS / TYPE OF CRIME AMONG DIFFERENT PSYCHIATRIC DIAGNOSIS
Objective: To identify the frequency of criminal acts/type of crime among different psychiatric diagnosis. Patients and Methods: All the inpatient and outpatients above 18 years of age, involved in crime brought by law enforcing agencies of Pakistan through a valid legal documentation with history of offender crimes.The data was collected on semi structured proforma designed with the help of supervisor depict demographic variables, types of crime and psychiatric diagnosis. Results: The crime distribution killing cases were found most common 50.5%, wound were 40%, while assault by sexually were found 7.50% with 38.3% in age roupd 20-30 years with rural population predominance 62.5%. Conclusion: Killing and wounding are the most important criminal acts in the psychotic disorder patients and lack of education is the commonest demographic features behind psychiatric patients involve in the crime.
Determining Correlations between Mental Health Disorders and the Tendency to Commit Crimes
Background: Research with the mentally disabled population has tended to uncover the myths of mental health disorders and find that there is no connection between mental health disorders and criminality. There is evidence that there are some patients that are diagnosed with mental health disorders who engage in criminality both before and after a diagnosis. Aim: The research in this study is to determine if criminal activity is related to the mental health disorder once a person has been diagnosed. It is predicted that the level of criminal activity would not increase or be relevant if there is a mental health disorder diagnosed in the client. Methods: Random samples of diagnosed mental health client’s records were examined to determine the forensic history of the client and when criminality began; what age and during what period in life-before or after being diagnosed. The sample of information is self-generated by the client and all personal information was left confidential.
The relationship between mental disorders and different types of crime
Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 2011
Background Previous studies of relationships between mental disorder and crime have tended to group the mental disorders, the crimes or both, leaving uncertainty about a more specific mental disorder: crime relationships. Objective To examine the relationship between types of mental disorder and types of crime in pre-trial defendants. Method Data were extracted from 21,424 pre-trial forensic psychiatric reports made between 2000 and 2006 in the Netherlands. We compared the prevalence of axis I disorders, personality disorders, intellectual functioning and substance abuse in defendants charged with a range of crimes (homicide, attempted/threatened homicide, assault, battery, rape, sexual crimes, arson and/or property crimes) using chi-square tests. Relationships with diminished accountability, reflecting a direct relationship with underlying mental disorder, were calculated using multivariate regression models, adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity and history of judicial contact. Results Arson had the strongest relationship with mental disorders in our sample, then assaults, then homicidal attempts or threats. Sexual and property crimes had the weakest relationship with diminished or absent accountability. Diminished accountability had the strongest relationship with psychotic disorders, followed by organic psychosyndromes and developmental disorders, whereas other axis I disorders, personality disorders or an IQ score of <85 points were only moderately related. These relationships varied little according to the type of crime, although tended to be weaker for defendants in property crimes. Cannabis and hard drugs were significantly associated with decreased accountability only in respect of arson.
Sixty-one male forensic patients who met the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia were categorised into high and low psychopathic trait groups using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version. The groups were compared on their criminal history, symptom profile, personality style, risk scores and subsequent institutional violence. Patients with high scores on the PCL:SV had a greater number of previous convictions and were more likely to have a family history of criminality. The high psychopathy-scoring group had higher levels of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale grandiose and hostile symptomatology, and higher scores on trait impulsivity and aggression. They also had a more coercive, less compliant interpersonal style than the low-psychopathy scoring group. The high-psychopathy scoring group were more likely to be involved in institutional aggression and had higher levels of risk for violence. Patients with schizophrenia and high levels of comorbid psychopathy have a distinctive interpersonal style that may contribute to their greater risk of disruptive institutional behaviour.
Assessment of the criminal recidivism among individuals with mental disorders
Prilozi, 2010
Epidemiological studies conducted in various regions through the world point to an increased risk of violence among individuals with mental disorders. Violent behaviour occurs in a certain social system that involves a whole person with a certain history of life, with a certain state of health or disease, and interaction with other socal circumastances. There are different methods of risk assessment, but basically two broad categories of methods determine assessment of the risk: clinical and statistical. The main purpose of the investigation is by using the statistical scale to determine risk factors of a psychopathological and social nature as well as individual traits that determine violent behaviour. The investigation has been conducted in psychiatric hospitals in Macedonia. The experimental group--perpetrators of a criminal act (PCA)--encompasses 89 patients, admitted to psychiatric hospitals in Macedonia as forensic patients. These patients have committed criminal acts. Accordi...
Personality Traits of Mentally Disordered Males Who Committed Homicide
International journal of medical toxicology and forensic medicine, 2017
Background : The relationship between personality traits and criminal behavior has not been sufficiently investigated. This study was done to determine the personality traits in a group of criminals who have committed homicide. Methods: This study was conducted to compare the personality traits in three groups of people in Tehran during 2014. The statistical population was examined 3 communities; first, forensic psychiatric patients; Second, people who accused homicide without psychiatric diagnosis; and, matched group (with no diagnosis and crime). The study sample included 121 males; they have been divided into 3 groups: psychiatric patients who have committed homicide (n=41), murderers without any major psychiatric disorder (n=40) and control group which includes non-committed and non-patient (n=40). The cases were evaluated by a short form of Neo questionnaire. Results: There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of personality traits, which included neurosis, ...
Archives of General Psychiatry, 1996
Background: Evidence has accumulated since the mid 1960s from a number of different countries indicating an association between mental disorder and crime and lence.ularly between the major mental disorders and violence. Registries in Denmark were used to identify a birth cohort and to document all psychiatric admissions and all criminal proceedings of the 324 401 members of this cohort up to the age of 43 years. Methods: Persons who had been admitted to a psychiatric ward were assigned to a diagnostic category according to a hierarchy of principal discharge diagnoses. They were compared with persons never admitted to a psychiatric ward as to the prevalence, type, and frequency of criminal convictions. Results: Women and men who had been hospitalized in psychiatric wards were more likely to have been convicted of a criminal offense than persons with no history of psychiatric hospitalization. The offenders who were hospitalized committed all types and, on average, as many offenses as did the never-hospitalized group of the same sex. Conclusions: These findings confirm those from 2 other post-World War II Scandinavian birth cohorts that have found an association between psychiatric hospitalization and criminal convictions. They also concur with findings that patients discharged from psychiatric wards are more likely than other persons living in the same community to commit crimes and with results from North America showing elevated rates of major mental disorders among incarcerated offenders. Generalization of these findings is limited to nations with similar criminal justice, mental health, and social welfare systems.
Criminal Behaviour is Driven Primarily by Mental Disorder
A brief analysis of the problems encountered during criminal justice and it's role in classifying criminals. This essay challenges long held assumptions that have permeated society and led to the over correction of oppresive sterotypes, both publicly and within the justice system. Moreover, it argues for a new approach to criminal justice by suggesting the bio-social model as a causal explanation to criminal behaviour.