Two methods of authenticating past criminal conduct by psychiatric inpatients: a comparison of clinical chart reports and criminal records.
Clinical chart reports on criminal activity based primarily on the patients' own reports were compared with official criminal records of their convictions in a large group of male inpatients suffering from schizophrenia, affective disorder and alcoholism. In 69% of the cases studied there was uniformity between both methods of ascertaining criminal activity. A considerable proportion (26%) of schizophrenic patients' clinical charts indicated criminal behaviour which was not officially registered in criminal records, whereas a substantial proportion (24%) of alcoholics did not report their criminal activities in their clinical records in spite of these being recorded in their criminal records. The conclusion is that official criminal records provide an incomplete account of infractions of the law by psychiatric, especially schizophrenic patients. The information recorded in official records seems to be less accurate than that in clinical charts in the case of schizophrenics, but more veracious in the case of alcoholics. When investigating the frequency of criminal behaviour by psychiatric patients these findings will therefore have to be taken into consideration.
Psychiatric University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland.
J
J
Modestin
R
R
Ammann
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism; D003415:Crime; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001523:Mental Disorders; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia; D013557:Switzerland; D014342:Truth Disclosure