Crime and Mental Disorder - An Epidemiological Approach (From Crime and Justice - An Annual Review of Research, P 145-189, 1983, Michael Tonry and Norval Morris, ed. - See NCJ-89003)

• NCJ Number: 89007
• Author(s): J Monahan; H J Steadman
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 45 pages
• Grant Number(s): 79-NI-AX-0126
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: University of Chicago Press
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The analytic framework of epidemiology can be used to study the relation between crime and mental disorder, distinguishing between the rates at which crime and mental disorder actually occur (true rates) and the rates at which the criminal justice system and mental health systems respond to them (treated rates).

Abstract

Rates of true and treated criminal behavior vary independently of rates of true and treated mental disorder when appropriate controls are made for such demographic factors as age, gender, and social class and for such life history factors as prior experience in the mental health and criminal justice systems. When these controls are not applied, rates of true and treated mental disorder are higher among criminals than among the general population, and rates of true and treated crime are higher among the mentally disordered than among the general population. When these controls are applied, the observed relations tend to dissipate. Tables and about 100 references are supplied. (Author abstract modified)