NCJ Number
152457
Journal
Journal of Forensic Psychiatry Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: (May 1994) Pages: 51-61
Date Published
1994
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article identifies 31 schizophrenic patients in England with a record of offending within the five years preceding their first psychiatric hospitalization and describes some aspects of the relationship between their illness and their criminal behavior.
Abstract
The sample included 29 men and 2 women, 20 of whom were white Europeans, 6 were Afro-Caribbean, 1 was Asian, and 3 had mixed racial origins. The 31 patients had committed 55 offenses; 12 had been convicted of at least two crimes during the study period, and three men had been convicted on three or more counts each. The greatest number of offenses were acquisitive and more than half had been committed by four men, each of whom had a history of similar crimes predating the onset of schizophrenia. Assaults ranged from verbal threats to a life-threatening assault. One man, with a long history of violent behavior unrelated to his illness, committed six of the 14 recorded violent crimes. Other offenses included property crimes, traffic violations, and public order offenses. In all, 13 of the subjects committed offenses closely related with psychotic symptoms, some as a direct result of delusions. Another two patients were ill at the time they were arrested, and there was evidence that their illness was a mediating factor in their behavior. 3 tables and 25 references