Dangerousness: Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights)

Dangerousness

An analysis of medical and legal flaws in the PCL-R, by Dr. Bob Johnson, November 10, 2006.
Offending in psychiatric patients after discharge from medium secure units: prospective national cohort study, by A Maden, F Scott, R Burnett, G H Lewis, P Skapinakis. May 29, 2004, Article in the British Medical Journal that despite great public concern, offending by psychiatric patients after discharge is rare.
Does Psychiatric Disorder Predict Violent Crime Among Released Jail Detainees? A Six- Year Longitudinal Study, by Linda A. Teplin, Karen M. Abram, and Gary M. McClelland, American Psychologist 1994, Vol 49, No. 4: 335-342. This study found neither severe mental disorder nor substance abuse or dependence predicted the probability of arrest or the number of arrests for violent crime. Persons with symptoms of both hallucinations and delusions had a slightly higher number of arrests for violent crime, but not significantly so. These findings held even after controlling for prior violence and age.
The Criminality of the Mentally 111: A Dangerous Misconception, by Linda A. Teplin, Ph.D., Am J Psychiatry 142:5, May 1985. This study found that persons exhibiting signs of serious mental disorder were not suspected of serious crimes at a rate disproportionate to their numbers in the population. The patterns of crime for people labeled mentally disordered and for people not labeled mentally disordered were substantially similar.

Victimization

Crime Victimization in Adults With Severe Mental Illness: Comparison With the National Crime Victimization Survey, by Linda A. Teplin, PhD; Gary M. McClelland, PhD; Karen M. Abram, PhD; Dana A. Weiner, PhD, Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005, Vol. 62: 911-921. This study found more than one quarter of persons diagnosed with Serious Mental Illness had been victims of a violent crime in the past year, a rate more than eleven times higher than the general population rates even after controlling for demographic differences.