Serious criminal offending and mental disorder
- 1 June 1998
- journal article
- Published by Royal College of Psychiatrists in The British Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 172 (6), 477-484
- https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.172.6.477
Abstract
Background: A relationship exists between mental disorder and offending behaviours but the nature and extent of the association remains in doubt.Method: Those convicted in the higher courts of Victoria between 1993 and 1995 had their pyschiatric history explored by case linkage to a register listing virtually all contacts with the public psychiatric services.Results: Prior psychiatric contact was found in 25% of offenders, but the personality disorder and substance misuse accounted for much of this relationship. Schizophrenia and affective disorders were also over-represented, particularly those with coexisting substance misuse.Conclusions: The increased offending in schizophrenia and affective illness is modest and may often be mediated by coexisting substance misuse. The risk of a serious crime being committed by someone with a major mental illness is small and does not justify subjecting them, as a group, to either increased institutional containment or greater coercion.Keywords
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