NCJ Number
192210
Date Published
2001
Length
79 pages
Annotation
This report examines the relationship between mental illnesses and criminal activity and describes how mentally ill offenders are handled by the Health and Criminal Justice Services in Australia.
Abstract
The report reviews current knowledge about the connection between mental disorders and offending behavior, pointing out its limitations as well as research priorities, and analyzed the policy implications. The report focuses on major mental disorders such as schizophrenia, affective disorders like depression, and other types of psychotic conditions and found a clear association with increased criminal behavior. Those offenders with intellectual impairment are more likely to be convicted of crimes, and that substance abuse only strengthened these associations. In most cases, no clear guidelines to identify those likely to commit seriously violent crimes were found. Deinstitutionalization and community care of the mentally disabled were not found to have increased crime, as some have charged. The report argues that more attention to the needs of the intellectually impaired both in terms of services in the community to forestall criminal behavior and in prison to divert them into health service programs. References, 7 appendices, tables, and graphs