[Insane offenders. Forensic psychiatry and criminal jurisprudence].
Care and treatment of mentally abnormal offenders constitute a special problem for the traditional penal system as well as for conventional psychiatric services. Persons who are not responsible for their criminal acts need more rather than less security. In this paper 348 criminal offenders were analyzed according to type of offence and diagnosis. This population constitutes 3.11% of all psychiatric in-patients in Austrian psychiatric hospitals. In order to improve possibilities of research and at the same time make custody and release better manageable it is suggested to establish special institutions for mentally abnormal offenders. Special attention is also paid to the problem of suicide and self-injuring of prisoners and especially to personality changes ("functional psychosyndrome") due to chronic imprisonment in cases of long-term criminal inmates.
D001317:Austria; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D010551:Personality; D012926:Social Control, Formal / Q000379:methods*
Geisteskranke Rechtsbrecher Forensische Psychiatrie und Strafrechtspflege.