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The Mentally Handicapped Criminal Offender a 10–year Study of Two Hospitals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Anthony Kearns  and
Art O'Connor
Anthony Kearns*
Affiliation:
St Mary's, Drumcar, Chase Farm Hospital
Art O'Connor
Affiliation:
Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin
*
∗Chase Farm Hospital, The Ridgeway, Enfield EN2 8JL
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Abstract

With mentally handicapped people now being moved into the community, information on mentally handicapped criminal offenders is valuable. A group of such offenders was examined by reviewing the case-notes of 92 patients referred on hospital order to two mental-handicap hospitals over 10 years. Compared with the general criminal population, these offenders' ages were higher, the ratio of male to female offenders was similar, and the proportion of married people was lower. The offences committed were for the most part serious, with a greater number of offences against property and public order in the subgroup whose intelligences were in the mentally handicapped range. Their tested intelligences fell almost entirely into the normal and mild mental-handicap range, suggesting that factors other than intelligence testing, such as social skills, were considered in their admission to the hospitals.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 6 , June 1988 , pp. 848 - 851
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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