Criminality in female inpatients with substance use disorders.
Three groups of female inpatients were compared with each other with regard to criminal behavior: 51 patients with alcohol dependence, 39 patients with drug (mostly opioid) dependence and 488 patients not fulfilling DSM-IV criteria for substance dependence. 45% of the alcohol-dependent patients, 74% of the drug-dependent patients and 15% of the psychiatric comparison group had a criminal record compared to only 2% of the female reference general population. Comparing criminal with noncriminal patients in both groups with substance dependence, patients with a criminal record were significantly younger than patients without a criminal record; however, otherwise only very few differences appeared. In contrast, alcohol-dependent and drug-dependent female patients with a criminal record appear to represent two quite different populations.
Modestin
J
J
Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. modestin.sek@puk.zh.ch
Rigoni
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D003415:Crime / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D013557:Switzerland