No abstract

Background Little is known about the recidivism of mentally disordered offenders after discharge from forensic psychiatric services. This is problematic because such knowledge could (i) help professionals who encounter this group to better plan interventions to prevent recidivism, (ii) clarify the rates of recidivism post-discharge from forensic psychiatric care and (iii) further develop instruments for specific risk assessment. The aim of this study was to investigate the new crimes of mentally disordered offenders who had been reconvicted after discharge from forensic psychiatric care. Methods Included in this study were all individuals (n = 1142) who had been discharged from forensic psychiatric care in Sweden during 2009–2018, were included in the Swedish National Forensic Psychiatric Register, and had been reconvicted in a criminal court within the follow-up period of 2009–2018 (n = 157, 14% of the population). The follow-up times of the discharged patients within the period varied from 4 to 3644 days, (m = 1697, Md = 1685). Retrospective registry data along with coded data from criminal court judgments (n = 210) were used to create a database. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis and descriptive statistical analysis was performed. Results 75% of included individuals were reconvicted for at least one violent crime, but only 9 individuals were reconvicted for a serious violent crime, which can be compared to the 44 individuals with serious violent index crimes. The most common crime was “Other violent”. The most common sentence was probation. The offender’s most common relationship to the victim was having no known relationship, followed by the victim being a person of authority. The most common circumstance of the crime leading to the reconviction was that it occurred without apparent provocation; other common circumstances were related to the exercise of public authority. The most common crime scene was a public place. Conclusions Even though the reconvictions of this group included many violent crimes, there were very few serious violent crimes. The findings that the victims of the crimes of mentally disordered offenders are most commonly either unknown to the perpetrator or persons of authority, and that the crimes are often perpetrated without apparent provocation or reason, are important information for all professionals who encounter this group and should be taken into consideration to assess risk more accurately.

No generally accepted method exists for quantifying the degree of injury in homicide victims. This study explores six different injury severity scores with the goal to recommend a valid method that is reliable and easy to use. To investigate this issue, 103 homicides are examined regarding the correlations between these scores. This study concludes that the Homicide Injury Scale is valid, easy to use, and has a satisfactory inter-rater reliability.

Background Mentally disordered offenders are a heterogenous group regarding psychopathology as well as background factors, which makes it likely that more than one stereotypical life situation will apply to all forensic psychiatric patients following discharge. Knowledge about typical life situations would be valuable for optimising support for improving the overall life situation of these individuals. This paper investigates life situations from the perspective of level of living research and resources in terms of different welfare dimensions. Methods Included were all all individuals (n = 1146) who had been discharged from forensic psychiatric care in Sweden during 2009–2018 and were included in the Swedish National Forensic Psychiatric Register. Follow-up time varied from 4–3644 days, (m = 1697, Md = 1685). Register data from several different registers was combined. Data was analysed using latent class analysis, and multinominal logistic regression analysis investigated what background factors were associated with class membership. Results The results show that there are four subgroups of post-discharge life situations: the high support group, the general psychiatric needs group, the working group, and the family group. The high support group was the largest, representing 54% of the entire sample. Conclusions This study contributes to the understanding of the post-discharge lives of former forensic psychiatric patients and shows that for several subgroups, negative outcomes are rare. Knowledge about these subgroups could be drawn upon to make informed decisions about in- and outpatient forensic psychiatric care, discharge from forensic psychiatric services, and what support is offered to former forensic psychiatric patients.