Characteristics of offenders referred for psychiatric forensic examination

Abstract

Introduction

Forensic psychiatry is facing major challenges related to criminal responsibility with an increasing number of offenses and the entanglement of several factors affecting offenders differently.

Objectives

The aim of this study is to determine the characteristics of offenders referred for forensic psychiatric examination.

Methods

We studied the medical files of all the offenders referred to the forensic psychiatry unit in Razi hospital for an examination between January 2010 and October 2020.

Results

The number of people who have undergone a forensic psychiatric examination was 256. Three files were not usable due to lacking data. The offenders were men in 95.7% (242) of the cases. Their average age was 35 years with a range of 17-53 years. They were mostly single (64%) with primary education (58.1%). Forty percent of the studied population were unemployed and 70% of them lived with their parents. Drug abuse was found in half of the cases and the average number of taken drugs is two illicit substances per person. A criminal record was found in 43% of the cases with an average number of two offenses per person. Offenders were found to suffer from schizophrenia in 29% of the cases, personality disorder in 17% of the cases and from intellectual disability in 16.6% of the cases. No psychiatric disorder was found in 24% of the cases

Conclusions

Despite having in common many vulnerability factors, such as low educational level, unemployment and drug abuse, an important number of offenders referred for forensic psychiatric examination weren’t affected by a psychiatric disorder.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.