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Arrest Patterns among Mentally Disordered Offenders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Graham Robertson
Graham Robertson*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
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Abstract

One unknown factor in the link between crime and mental illness is whether or not mentally ill offenders are more liable than others to arrest. Ninety-one mentally ill, and 76 normal, criminally offending men were asked about the circumstances of their offence and arrest. A majority of mentally ill men had been arrested at the scene of the crime, and more than a quarter of the schizophrenic group had reported themselves to the police. We argue that when many offenders are either unreported or undetected, the increased vulnerability of the mentally ill to detection and arrest makes them disproportionately liable to detection. Attempting to assess the relationship between crime and mental illness is thus extremely difficult.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 3 , September 1988 , pp. 313 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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