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Mental health needs of defendants with intellectual disabilities presenting at court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2024

J. McCarthy ,
E. Chaplin ,
D Harvey ,
K Marshall-Tate ,
S Ali  and
A Forrester Professor
J. McCarthy*
Affiliation:
1King’s College London, London, United Kingdom 2University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
E. Chaplin
Affiliation:
3 London South Bank University, London, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Background

Studies in different countries of defendants with mild to borderline intellectual disability found they have distinct characteristics from other defendants. The aim of this study was to examine several characteristics among defendants with intellectual disability comparing to those defendants without intellectual disability presenting to court services in London, England.

Method

This was a retrospective data analysis of routine administrative data collected by the Liaison and Diversion services across five Magistrates courts in London, England. Data were analysed on defendants identified through screening to have an intellectual disability and compared to defendants without an intellectual disability.

Results

9088 defendants were identified and of these 349 (4%) had an intellectual disability. Defendants with intellectual disability were over four times more likely to have comorbid attention deficit hyperactive disorder and over 14 times more likely to have autism spectrum disorder. There was an increased odds ratio of self-reported suicidal/self-harming behaviour for those defendants with intellectual disability compared to those without intellectual disability.

Conclusion

This study has highlighted the increased vulnerability of defendants with intellectual disability for other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Disclosure of Interest

J. McCarthy Grant / Research support from: Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Charity for £674,000, E. Chaplin Grant / Research support from: Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Charity for £674,000

Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 67 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 32nd European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2024 , pp. S16
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://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
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Psychiatric Association
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