Depression
· severe illness may lead to homicide
· the depressed person is usually acting on delusions
· family member is usually the victim in altruistic homicides
· the killer often commits suicide afterwards
· sometimes associated with shoplifting
Bipolar Illness
· offending is more common than in depression
· manic patients may spend excessively, hire cars and fail to return them, or steal cars
· may be charged with fraud or false pretences
· prone to irritability and aggression, though any resulting violence is seldom severe
Schizophrenia
· more likely to commit non-violent as well as violent crimes
· minor offences more likely than serious offences
· most criminal behaviour followed the onset of schizophrenia, although crime is
frequently a result of personality difficulties and social incompetence
· risk of homicide is moderately increased in schizophrenia compared to the general
population
· violence in schizophrenics may be associated with any of:
· great fear and loss of self control associated with non-systematized
delusions
· systematized paranoid delusions of persecution
· irresistible urges
· instructions from hallucinatory voices
· unaccountable frenzy
· risk of violence is greatest where delusions are accompanied by strong affect, and
when the person has made efforts to try to confirm the truth of the delusions
Dementia
· 44% are mildly aggressive
· 10% severely aggressive
· association between offending and dyspraxia
Episodic dyscontrol syndrome (Bach-y-Rita et al. 1971)
· repeated unprovoked episodes of violence
· excluded epilepsy, schizophrenia, pathological intoxication, drug intoxication
· unexplained violence preceded by a sequence of aura, headache, and drowsiness
· 50 % reported amnesia for the episode
· 50 % have EEG abnormalities, usually in the temporal lobes
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