Forensic psychiatry: female offenders

The authors examined the records of 127 female and 1,068 male offenders referred by the courts to a forensic service over a 22-year-period. Female offenders were less likely than male offenders to be referred for psychiatric evaluations when they were charged with criminal behavior. They were more likely to be charged with homicide, arson, forgery, or fraud and more frequently received diagnoses of affective disorder and neurosis

Forensic psychiatry: anatomy of a service

An examination of an urban forensic service over a 22 year period was undertaken by reviewing the records of 1195 defendants admitted. This revealed an increasing referral of violent and youthful defendants. Referral rates were highest for homicide. The prominent diagnosis seen was antisocial personality (27%), while schizophrenia (16%) was the next most common diagnosis. The reports to the court indicate an increasing tendency toward a finding of competency to stand trial as a result of increasing pretrial treatment. These data are compared to reports for other English-speaking forensic services and a correlation between admissions of schizophrenic defendants and a tendency toward relatively minor criminal offenses is see

Forensic psychiatry: profiles of two types of sex offenders

The authors examined records of 239 individuals charged with sexual offenses and referred by the courts to a forensic service. Defendants charged with rape were typically under 30 with histories of antisocial behavior that included other types of violence. Major mental illness was rare in this group. Child molesters in the sample were of no particular age, usually had no history of violent behavior, and had a low incidence of psychosis. The most common secondary diagnosis in both groups was alcohol or drug abuse

Forensic psychiatry: diagnosis and criminal responsibility

An examination of the primary and secondary diagnoses of 1195 defendants admitted to an urban forensic service was carried out. This indicated that personality disorders dominated the referral patterns from the court