Not guilty by reason of insanity: clinical and judicial profile of medium and high security patients in Belgium

Inge Jeandarme*, Xavier Saloppé, Petra Habets, Thierry H. Pham

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Under Belgian law, offenders deemed to lack criminal responsibility because of insanity receive mandated treatment under the internment law. Population profiles of these forensic patients (‘internees’) are, however, very scarce. In this study, we analysed the demographic, clinical and judicial profile of a large sample of Belgian internees admitted to a secure setting. In addition, differences between internees admitted to a medium versus a high security setting were investigated. Belgian internees were characterised by a large number of personality disorders and a low number of first offenders. Comparative analyses showed substantial differences between the high and medium security settings, with a marked proportion of the forensic patients in high security having committed a sexual offence. Contrary to expectations, more predictors for length of stay were found in the medium security subsample, while admission periods were significantly longer in the high security subsample.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)286-300
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology
Volume30
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Mar 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • clinical profile
  • Forensic psychiatry
  • internees
  • NGRI

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Not guilty by reason of insanity: clinical and judicial profile of medium and high security patients in Belgium'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this