Mental disorders and criminal behaviour (original) (raw)
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Criminality in men with major mental disorder with and without comorbid substance abuse
Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 2005
Violent and criminal behavior in the mentally ill remains an issue of major importance and in this context the role of comorbid substance abuse must be addressed. Data on criminal behavior in 282 men with schizophrenia and 261 men with affective disorder were studied. Samples of patients with and without additional substance abuse were compared. Also, non-abusing patients from both diagnostic groups were compared with matched controls from the general population. Substance abuse was found in half of all men in both groups of major mental disorders, and substance abusers had twice as high a probability of having a criminal record. However, compared with the matched sample from the general population, violent criminality was increased in schizophrenic patients without comorbid substance abuse, and patients with affective disorders without substance abuse had a higher probability of committing crimes against property. Men with major mental disorder have an increased probability of becoming criminal even when there is no comorbid substance abuse.
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.
Crime, Re-offence and Substance Abuse of Patients with Severe Mental Disorder
Advanced Techniques in Biology & Medicine
Scientific research has shown that there is a causal association between crime, re-offence, and severe mental disorder. Numerous authors have found that psychosis, particularly schizophrenic psychosis, personality disorders, namely antisocial personality disorder, and substance abuse are disorders, which considerably increase the criminal risk. The patients' decompensation and the associated comorbidity, in this regard, can never be neglected. Therefore, in this paper a review of literature was performed whose goals demonstrate: 1) the relationship between severe mental disorder and crime; 2) the relationship between severe mental disorder and re-offence; 3) the relationship between substance use and crime; 4) the relationship between substance use in individuals with severe mental disorder and crime and re-offence. Promoting the independence and well-being of these patients contributing to the maintenance of social peace, which requires timely monitoring and evaluation of the clinical condition and functionality of the individual, through articulation in a network, which would allow to assess and foster the skills of the individual as a social being.
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.
The American journal of psychiatry, 1997
The purpose of the study was to examine the quantitative risk of criminal behavior associated with specific mental disorders. An unselected 1966 birth cohort (N = 12,058) in Northern Finland was prospectively studied until the end of 1992. The investigation started during the mothers' pregnancy, and the data on the subjects' family characteristics, mental and physical development, living habits, psychiatric morbidity, and criminal records were gathered at various times. The prevalence of offenses was the highest among males with alcohol-induced psychoses and male schizophrenic subjects with coexisting alcohol abuse, and more than half of the schizophrenic offenders also had problems with alcohol. Eleven (7%) of the 165 subjects who committed violent crimes were diagnosed as psychotic. Male schizophrenic subjects had a moderately high risk for violent offenses, but the risk for other types of crimes was not elevated significantly. Odds ratios for criminal behavior were adjust...
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.
Patterns of Substance Abuse in Offenders With Schizophrenia- Illness-Related or Criminal Life-Style?
Frontiers in psychiatry, 2018
The impact of substance abuse on violent behavior in patients suffering from schizophrenia is well-known. However, the association between the pattern of substance abuse and certain aspects of criminal behavior like the severity of offense, the previous history of violence and the age at onset of the criminal career is still unclear. To assess the relationship between substance abuse, schizophrenia and violent behavior we examined healthy non-offenders; healthy offenders; non-offenders suffering from schizophrenia; and offenders suffering from schizophrenia, with respect to different patterns of substance abuse (none, alcohol only, illicit drugs only, and multiple substances). Healthy offenders as well as offenders and non-offenders suffering from schizophrenia are characterized by increased rates of alcohol and illicit drug abuse. Especially multiple substance abuse appears to lower the threshold of aggression and illegal behavior. This effect is more pronounced in subjects sufferi...
Schizophrenia, Substance Abuse, and Violent Crime
JAMA, 2009
Context Persons with schizophrenia are thought to be at increased risk of committing violent crime 4 to 6 times the level of general population individuals without this disorder. However, risk estimates vary substantially across studies, and considerable uncertainty exists as to what mediates this elevated risk. Despite this uncertainty, current guidelines recommend that violence risk assessment should be conducted for all patients with schizophrenia.