Forensic Psychiatric Patients Archives

Claims Of Crime-Related Amnesia In Forensic Patients

February 21, 2019October 8, 2017 by admin

Abstract

Many authors assume that crime-related amnesia arises from the stressful nature of crimes and/or drug intoxication at the time crimes are committed. The current study examined prevalence and correlates of crime-related amnesia in a German (n=180) and a Dutch (n=128) sample of forensic inmates. More specifically, patients claiming amnesia and control patients were compared with regard to their intelligence, criminal backgrounds, and psychiatric diagnoses. In contrast to the popular stress-dissociation interpretation, stressful features of the crime were not found to be related to claims of amnesia. Neither alcohol nor drug intoxication, nor psychotic episodes could fully account for claims of memory loss. Interestingly, amnesia claims were especially prevalent among recidivists. This suggests that such claims are the product of a learning process. Thus, it may well be that those who are familiar with the penal system may have experienced the advantages of claiming amnesia.

Risk Of Homicidal Behavior Among Discharged Forensic Psychiatric Patients.

December 1, 2018September 21, 2017 by admin

Abstract

We studied the risk of homicidal behavior among 281 released male forensic psychiatric patients during the 14-year period 1978-1991. Released patients were about 300 times more likely to commit a homicide than the general male population during the first year outside hospital, and the corresponding risk was 53-fold during a mean follow-up period of 7.8 years. The odds ratio for committing a homicide among all Finnish schizophrenics during the 12-year period 1980-1991 was 9.7, which indicates that previous criminality associated with schizophrenia also increases the risk of homicidal behavior remarkably when compared with schizophrenia per se. We believe that this kind of epidemiological approach is a useful method of identifying and classifying factors associated with very high risk of homicidal behavior and preventing homicidal behavior among high-risk populations...