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Dementia and crime: A forensic psychiatry unit study in israel
Author(s) -
Heinik Jeremiah,
Kimhi Robert,
Hes Josef Ph.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.930090608
Subject(s) - forensic psychiatry , dementia , psychiatry , personality disorders , personality , geriatric psychiatry , psychosis , psychology , mental health , delusional disorder , medicine , disease , social psychology , pathology
The psychiatric files of the 57 consecutive defendants aged 60+ referred by court for psychiatric examination at the Forensic Psychiatry Unit at the Y. Abarbanel Mental Health Center in the period 1982–1992 were retrospectively evaluated. The objectives were as follows: (a) to compare some assessment aspects of dementia patients with those of psychotics and personality disorders; (b) to compare how the questions of competency to stand trial, legal responsibility and competency to be sentenced were differentially approached. Of the 57 elderly patients surveyed, 17 (30%) suffered from dementia, 14 (25%) from a functional psychosis and 16 (28%) from a personality disorder. These three groups of psychiatric patients were found to be quite similar regarding the demographic and criminal variables studied. However, dementia patients occupied an intermediate position between the psychotics and personality disorders when assessment characteristics, psychiatric and legal recommendations to the court were considered.