Criminal behavior and mental illness in the Arab world

The violence profile of male mentally disordered offenders in a high secure unit in Turkiye

Our knowledge of the severity and reoffending is limited for mentally disordered offenders, and studies generally evaluate without separation between different diagnostic groups. It was aimed to determine the general profile of mentally disordered offenders who are inpatients in a high secure psychiatry unit from Turkiye and to evaluate the factors associated with violence profiles among different diagnostic groups. According to the results the schizophrenia patients committed the most severe crimes, and intellectual disability patients had some different features from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients. History of substance misuse in the intellectual disability group (p = 0,045) and comorbid antisocial personality disorder in the bipolar disorder group (p = 0,015) were associated with increased crime severity. Substance misuse history, history of substance use during the crime, and the existence of comorbid antisocial personality disorder were associated with increased offenses in each of the three diagnosis groups. Living alone (p = 0,004) and having a suicide history (p= 0,052) were associated with the high number of offenses in the schizophrenia group. This study is the first study that compares three diagnostic groups to involve a large patient group. We believe that clinicians must evaluate these parameters for the violence risk assessment of patients.

Criminology and Crime Science in the Arab World

Throughout most of the twentieth century, Western criminological thought was preoccupied by theories of modern criminology, which were concerned with the question of why individuals commit crime. Since the late 1970s, however, the Western world has experienced new reconfigurations in the crime control field, one of which is the transformation of Western criminological thought. New crime theories have emerged in which the focus has shifted from the 'criminal' to the 'criminal activity'. Despite their importance, these developments have had no impact on the criminological thought in the Arab world, which is, to this day, is dominated by Western theories of modern criminology. This paper has three purposes. First, it discusses the status quo of criminology in the Arab world. Second, it suggests plausible explanations that help understand the current status of criminology in this region. Third, it discusses the relevance of some criminological developments (notably crime theories and environmental criminology) in the Arab context. In that eventuality, it argues that the Western developments might bring insightful crime prevention lessons for the Arab world.

Criminal recidivism of patients in Swedish forensic psychiatry: A register-based comparison study

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to evaluate criminal outcomes of mentally disordered offenders in compulsory forensic psychiatric care during the year 2010 versus 2018. More specifically, we sought to identify the occurrence of new criminal sentences during ongoing treatment and possible factors associated with recidivistic criminality. Another aim was to map previous criminality, types of index crime, and whether there were any changes within this decade.

METHODS

Crime-, clinical, and treatment-related variables were collected from the Swedish National Forensic Psychiatric Register for all unique inpatients registered from January 1-December 31 in 2010 (N = 717) and 2018 (N = 757). The mean, frequency, percentage, and standard deviation were calculated per variable and stratified by study year and gender. Between-group comparisons were made using t-tests and Chi-square tests. Binary logistic regression was performed to determine whether variables expected to be associated with recidivism showed any relation to criminal recidivism for each study cohort.

RESULTS

Most patients were male and approximately one-quarter and one-half of the men, respectively, had a previous sentence for non-violent and violent crimes. The 2018 cohort showed significantly lower rates of sentences to forensic psychiatry with special court supervision although the numbers were low in both cohorts and for both men and women. Previous violent conviction was associated with criminal recidivism during treatment in 2010, while this was joined by index crime under the influence of alcohol/illicit drugs for the 2018 cohort.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, these results showed more similarities between the 2010 and 2018 cohorts then dissimilarities, while on the other hand some quite substantial differences were described between males versus females. The results of this study indicate that it may be possible to tailor forensic psychiatric treatment to gender as a proxy for other variables related to increased criminal recidivism in offenders sentenced to forensic psychiatric care.

Impact of Legal Traditions on Forensic Mental Health Treatment Worldwide

BACKGROUND

Forensic psychiatry is a subspecialty dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of mentally ill offenders. However, forensic treatment standards vary. Differences arise among forensic treatment standards, due to variations in either the legal framework, the general psychiatric treatment standards, or the forensic training standards. Thus, to date there is no evidence-based pattern for how forensic services should be organized and provided.

AIMS

The aim of this article is to compare forensic services in various countries in order to contribute to the current debate on international forensic treatment standards, by informing about existing differences in available policies.

METHODS

This scoping review was conducted by reviewing the academic literature regarding forensic treatment around the world. Studies were identified from Pub-Med and Google-Scholar. Keywords for the search included "forensic psychiatry," "mentally ill offenders," "legal framework," "jurisdiction," and the names of geographical regions.

RESULTS

Forensic treatment admission varies significantly around the world. There are countries that do not recognize forensic psychiatry as a subspecialty, whereas other countries apply insufficient forensic training. Most countries provide inpatient treatment for mentally ill offenders. However, service organization varies, including where the services are delivered (prisons, high-security hospitals, and general psychiatric departments). Forensic services are mainly centralized, although the need for outpatient care is emerging.

DISCUSSION

Differences may originate mainly from variations in the legal tradition. These differences combined with the limited evidence on the effectiveness of the intervention imply the need for the optimization of forensic treatment standards on an international level. Therefore, further follow-up studies are needed.