Educationals

Affective disorders appear less frequently than expected among violent offenders as a whole. In some cases homicide will precede suicide or attempted suicide. Mothers who kill their children often suffer from depression (Somasundaram,1973). According to West,(1968) the incidence of murder in association with depression is considerably high. About one out of every three English murderers killed themselves immediately after the crimes. In the United States by contrast, the relative frequency of depressive murder is much less. The affective disorder accounted for 15% of the insane murders in Europe; 0% in Moscow, and 4% in New York.

Epilepsy

The association of offending and epilepsy is summarised by Gunn,(1969)

• The offence may occur in a disturbed state induced directly by a fit. This appears to be rare.
• The offence and the fit may be coincidental.
• The brain damage which caused the epilepsy may have led to personality problems resulting in antisocial behaviour.
• The subject may have developed strong antisocial attitudes as a result of the difficulties he has experienced in life as a consequence of his illness.
• An early deprived childhood environment may have both, engenerated antisocial attitudes and exposed the subject to epileptogenic features.
• Antisocial subjects may expose themselves to dangerous situations and sustain more head injuries than normal, which may cause epilepsy.

Epileptic crimes are of historical importance from the forensic psychiatric point of view for it was in a cause of an epileptic murder in Scotland that the plea of diminished responsibility was accepted by the Law there.(Whitlock,1963). In a Chennai study of crimes committed by persons with epilepsy, out of 115 criminals mentally ill, 15 were found to be suffering from epilepsy i.e. 13% (Somasundaram, 1972).

The various abnormal mental states associated with epilepsy, like confusion, stupor, depression or excitement could be raised in the Court of law, but automatism is a comparatively simple defence raised in many cases.

Epilepsy poses a problem to the psychiatrist especially in relation to crime, but in many cases, this could be untangled by careful history taking, observation and EEG findings.

Neuroses and crime

The incidence is unknown. In a study of shoplifters, 10% were found to be neurotic but there was no control study. Gunn,(1978) gave a primary diagnosis of neurosis to 9% of a prison population; but it is difficult to know how this would compare with the general population. There is one particular syndrome, the Ganser syndrome, which has been described as a reaction to imprisonment. Ganser was certain that the condition was not malingering but a genuine illness which he believed was hysterical in nature.

Personality disorder

There are close associations between crime and personality disorder, particularly antisocial personality disorder. Gunn,(1977) diagnosed abnormal personality in 20% of prisoners in prisons in South East England. Bluglass found psychopathic personality disorder in 40% of newly convicted prisoners in a Scottish prison; and Guze,(1976) described 70% of prisoners discharged from American prisons as 'sociopathic'; Gueze,(1976) recommended that psychiatrists should used the word 'psychopathic disorder' in current legal proceedings. It is widely held that the legal concept of psychopath is unsatisfactory. The legal definition is difficult to apply in practice.

Mental retardation

Contrary to earlier beliefs, there is no evidence that most criminals are of marked low intelligence. Recent surveys have shown that most delinquent youths are within the lower part of the normal range of intelligence and only about 3% are mentally retarded.

Mentally retarded people may commit offence because:

• They do not understand the implication of their behaviour, or
• Because they are susceptible to exploitation by other people.

The commonest offences by mentally retarded people are:

• Sexual offenses
• Arson
• Drug peddling