NCJ Number
90941
Date Published
1968
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The epileptics and other mentally ill appear to be prone to commit crime. However, the nonexistence of statistical data on the frequency of mental illness in normal people and among criminals excludes valid conclusions about the proneness of the mentally ill and epileptics to commit crimes.
Abstract
The most frequent crimes committed by epileptics admitted to psychiatric hospitals as forensic cases are murders and bodily injuries. They commit thefts less frequently. Men comprise 96 percent of the offenders in this group. In approximately 60 percent of the murders, the epileptic kills two or more people, and these are rarely family members. The epileptic commits the crime in a state of excitation or heightened anxiety resulting from a quarrel. Some case histories are reported that suggest that the psychiatric and forensic evaluation of the crime committed by an epileptic must include an analysis of the factors determining the development of the premorbid personality as well as the changes caused by the epilepsy itself. Five tables are included. (Author summary modified)