Compared with homicide perpetrators who kill those who are known to them, perpetrators who kill strangers are more likely to:
E. The national confidential inquiry on homicide (1996–9) data found that 22% of all reported homicides were stranger homicides. In stranger homicides the perpetrator was more likely to be a young male and less likely to have a history of mental disorder or a history of contact with mental health services. They were also less likely to have psychiatric symptoms at the time of the offense than perpetrators of non-stranger homicides. They were more likely to have a history of drug or alcohol misuse.
Reference:
Which of the following is true with regard to men convicted of a sexual offense compared with men with no history of sexual offenses in the general population?
C. Traditional expert views on the association between sexual offending and psychiatric disorders were challenged by a case–control study using 13 years’ data from Swedish crime registers conducted by Fazel et al (2007). The authors compared sexual offenders with a random sample of men from the general population and reported that sexual offenders were more likely to have been hospitalized for a psychiatric condition than men in the general population (odds ratio (OR) 6.3). They also showed that sexual offenders were more likely to have a severe mental illness, including schizophrenia (OR 4.8), bipolar disorder (OR 3.4), other psychoses (OR 5.2), or an organic psychiatric condition (OR 2.4).
Elderly offenders are often an under-researched population compared with working age offenders.
Which of the following is true regarding elderly sex offenders?
B. As stated in the question, research is scarce in the area of criminality in elderly people. A case–control study comparing elderly sex offenders with elderly non-sex offenders showed that the rates of psychotic illness, depressive disorders, personality disorders, and dementia did not differ significantly between the two groups. Significant differences were observed at the level of personality traits wherein sex offenders were observed to have more schizoid, obsessive– compulsive, and avoidant traits but fewer antisocial traits than non-sex offenders. Similar to any other age group of sex offenders, the elderly group consisted exclusively of males. The authors concluded that sex offending in elderly people is associated more with personality factors than with mental illness or organic brain disease.
Which of the following statements is true with respect to reduction in the risk of violence associated with schizophrenia?
C. The data from Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) project were analyzed for the effect of antipsychotics on violent behaviour in those with schizophrenia. Violence declined from 16% to 9% in those who completed the antipsychotic treatment throughout the trial period of 6 months. But no demonstrable difference was found among the different medication groups; medication adherence was associated with a reduced risk of violence only in patients with no history of childhood antisocial conduct. Hence the effect of antipsychotics on violence in schizophrenia seems to depend on the effect of the drugs on acute psychopathology. This study did not show an advantage for second-generation antipsychotics in violence risk reduction when compared with first-generation antipsychotic perphenazine.
The most important difference between legally determined non-insane automatisms and insane automatisms is:
B. Automatism is a psychiatric defense used in cases of homicide. Under automatism, the defense counsel argues that the accused person’s behaviour at the time of the offense was ‘automatic’. In other words, mens rea was absent and the act was merely done without the conscious force of the mind – no intention was present. Some causes of automatism include hypoglycaemia, sleep walking, epilepsy, etc. In general, the defendant is acquitted if he/she is found to have a case of sane automatism, i.e. automatisms that occur due to external causes; these are unlikely to recur, hence the acquittal. Insane automatisms are due to ‘internal diseases’ or disorders of the mind, which have a propensity to recur. This classification is purely legal and not based on the impulsive nature of the crime or treatability of the condition. Note that both types of automatisms, by definition, mean that there is a lack of intent (mens rea). Often discrete medical disorders can be classified in either type of automatism.
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