Madness and crime: Criminology versus psychiatry

Abstract

In considering the relationship between criminal behaviour and severe mental illness two schools of thought can be identified. One, arbitrarily labelled the 'criminological', holds that criminality and mental illness are only weakly associated, if at all. The second, labelIed the 'psychiatrie' view, holds that there is areal and consistent relationship between mental illness, in particular psychosis, and violen ce. There are at least two explanations for these apparently conflicting views. Methodological difficulties, such as case definition, information bias, selection bias and confounding, have led to flawed results. The opposing conclusions are, howeve,r. not just the result of methodological shortcomings but reflect more fundamental differences in approach. The criminological emphasis on populations and offending, largely in quantitative terms, is contrasted with the psychiatrie emphasis on individuals and violen ce. Longitudinal cohort studies, using the methodology of criminal careers, may allow the two approaches to be combined, and lead to conclusions of more practical value.

Homicide and schizophrenia: maybe treatment does have a preventive effect

“…This figure is our recalculation of the data presented by Häfner and Böker. Others, for example Wessely and Taylor (1991), have interpreted these data as indicating that persons with schizophrenia were three times more likely to kill than persons without this disorder. 5 Only males.…”

Assessing and managing violence risk in outpatient settings

“…Monahan & Steadman, 1994, for a summary) and review articles (Mossman, 1994;Otto, 1992Otto, , 1994, and most recently formed the basis for the Violence Risk Assessment Study organized by John Monahan under the auspices of the MacArthur Research Network on Mental Health and the Law. Findings from this "second generation" of research, which incorporated many of Monahan's (1984Monahan's ( , 1988 recommendations, suggest that (1) violent behavior is not necessarily a low base rate behavior and occurs with some degree of frequency among persons with mental disorder (e.g., Otto, 1992;Steadman et al,1998;Wessely & Taylor, 1991); (2) persons with certain mental disorders and symptom clusters are more likely to engage in violent behavior than persons without such (e.g., Swanson, 1994;Swanson, Holzer, Ganzu, & Jono, 1990); and (3) mental health professionals have some ability to assess violence risk among persons with mental disorder (e.g., Mossman, 1994;Mulvey & Lidz, 1998;Otto, 1992Otto, , 1994.…”

Childhood experiences of patients with schizophrenia and a history of violence: a special hospital sample

“…There is increasing evidence, however, for a small but significant association between schizophrenia and violence directed at others (Swanson et al, 1990;Link et al, 1992;Monahan, 1992;Wessely & Taylor, 1991;Taylor & Hodgins, 1994). Evidence of a direct association between illness and violence comes from studies demonstrating links between symptomatology and violence (Taylor, 1985;Link & Stueve, 1994).…”