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Predicting violence in schizophrenic and non‐schizophrenic patients: A prospective study
Author(s) -
Klassen Deidre,
O'Connor William A.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(198804)16:2<217::aid-jcop2290160211>3.0.co;2-r
Subject(s) - recidivism , psychiatry , psychology , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , clinical psychology , situational ethics , mental health , medical record , medicine , social psychology
This study examined predictors of violence in schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic mental health patients. Data were obtained for a sample of 304 adult male patients who were admitted for short‐term emergency treatment and consisted of mental hospital admission records, arrest records, and interview data on demographic, early history, and current situational variables. Subjects were classified as violent or non‐violent during a 1‐year follow‐up period based on arrest and readmission records. The sample was divided into schizophrenic and non‐schizophrenic groups, and a discriminant analysis was conducted for each group using intake data as independent variables to predict violent recidivism. The results indicated some patterns of different predictors for the two groups. Life events, substance abuse, and self‐reported arrests for violent crime were predictive of subsequent violence for non‐schizophrenic patients but not for schizophrenic patients. Selfreported incidents of violence other than arrests predicted subsequent violence for schizophrenic but not for non‐schizophrenic patients. Classification results for both groups were excellent, with 88.1% and 92.9% correct classification and 17.6% and 9.4% false positive rates for schizophrenic and non‐schizophrenic patients, respectively.