Am J Psychiatry 1977; 134:80-83
Copyright © 1977 by American Psychiatric Association
Criminality and mental illness: a study of arrest rates in a rural state
JR Durbin, RA Pasewark and D Albers
The authors examined cumulative arrests for the period of 1964-1973 for
psychiatric patients admitted to a state hospital in 1969 (286 men and 175
women) and for the general population in Wyoming. Male patients were
arrested as often as or more often than individuals in the general
population. No men diagnosed as schizophrenic were arrested for crimes
against persons; one-fourth of arrests among individuals diagnosed as
alcoholics were for such crimes. Arrest rates among women patients seemed
to parallel those of women in the general population, although the sample
was too small for definite conclusions. Male patients were arrested
significantly less often following dischanrge than before hospitalization.
