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Psychopathy in Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Martin Humphreys
Martin Humphreys*
Affiliation:
Reaside Clinic, Birmingham Great Park, Rubery, Birmingham B45 9BE
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Abstract

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Aims and method

The aim was to examine why the legal category of psychopathic disorder does not appear in the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984 and to review selected literature relating to differences between prison and special hospital populations in Scotland from those elsewhere.

Results

There is now some emerging evidence to suggest that the legislation north of the border might reflect the notion that there may be fewer people with psychopathic disorders in Scotland.

Clinical implications

With devolution and the advent of a Scottish Parliament the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984 is likely to be reviewed. At that time it would be inappropriate to consider including ‘psychopathic disorder’ but some alternative to the current rather narrow definition of ‘mental disorder’ may be required.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , February 1999 , pp. 77 - 79
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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