NCJ Number
122879
Journal
American Journal of Psychiatry Volume: 145 Issue: 5 Dated: (May 1989) Pages: 605-610
Date Published
1988
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Several states are changing legislation and treatment programs for mentally ill offenders without knowing how current laws and programs operate.
Abstract
Data from police records, court reports, and clinical files on 2,735 psychiatric cases referred from the Alaskan criminal justice system was evaluated. The Data spanned the 1977 through 1981 timeframe. The findings indicated that only 0.2 to 2.0 percent of all schizophrenic persons in the community were arrested for violent crimes each year, accounting for 1.1 to 2.3 percent of all arrests for violent crimes. The psychiatrists agreed on the competency and responsibility in 79 percent of all the evaluated cases. And of total criminal cases, successful insanity defense occurred 0.1 percent of the time or less. 2 table, 31 references. (Author abstract modified)