TY - JOUR
T1 - Not guilty by reason of insanity
T2 - clinical and judicial profile of medium and high security patients in Belgium
AU - Jeandarme, Inge
AU - Saloppé, Xavier
AU - Habets, Petra
AU - Pham, Thierry H.
N1 - Funding Information:
The project was funded by Limburg Sterk Merk (LSM) and the Public Psychiatric Care Centre Rekem (OPZC Rekem). . This study was made possible with support of the Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunity of the Walloon Region of Belgium.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2019/3/4
Y1 - 2019/3/4
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - clinical profile
KW - Forensic psychiatry
KW - internees
KW - NGRI
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057338784&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/14789949.2018.1544265
DO - 10.1080/14789949.2018.1544265
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85057338784
SN - 1478-9949
VL - 30
SP - 286
EP - 300
JO - Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology
JF - Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology
IS - 2
ER -