Attitudes Towards Criminal and Other Patients

• NCJ Number: 76030
• Journal: Acta Psychiatria Scandinavica Volume: 59 Issue: 1 Dated: (1979) Pages: 24-30
• Author(s): M Viukari; R Rimon; S Soederholm
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: Denmark

Annotation

Medical staff attitudes toward mentally abnormal offenders were investigated through studying attitudes toward a drug trial to test the hypothesis that medical and nursing staff hold generally unfavorable attitudes toward sociopathic offenders.

Abstract

An 18-item questionnaire was administered to staff members (nurses, mental nurses, assistants, and aides) of the forensic psychiatric assessment ward of the Helsinki University Central Hospital. Questions covered attitudes toward drug trials and opinions about the working situation and the relations between different staff categories and the patients. A separate questionnaire measured the attitudes of 21 general physicians toward assessment and drug treatment of mentally abnormal offenders, as well as toward 10 illnesses. The questionnaire contained self-rating scales. Results showed negative attitudes toward drug trials of mentally abnormal offenders in 79 percent of the staff personnel. In contrast, 71 percent of the in three Swedish mental hospitals had positive attitudes. Three-quarters of the nursing staff on the forensic ward felt that drug treatment did not benefit the offenders. Both the assessment and drug treatment of mentally abnormal offenders were rated more negatively than any somatic illness. Other neuropsychiatric disorders were also significantly less favored than physical illnesses such as pneumonia. Physicians held attitudes similar to those of the nursing staff. It was concluded that medical personnel's negative attitudes toward mentally abnormal offenders may contribute to patients' dysfunctional behavior in diagnosis and treatment. Also, the diagnosis of 'sociopathic personality' is in itself often the reflection of a failure in therapeutic communication and subconscious feelings that are detrimental to therapeutic progress. One table, 1 graph, and 10 references are provided. (Author abstract modified)