A Comparative Analysis of the Official Crime Statistics of People with Mental Illness and Public Perception / 대한정신분열병학회지

OBJECTIVES: There exists only a limited number of studies on the people's perception of criminality of people with mental illness. People's fear of the dangerousness of people with mental illness may have been exaggerated, and yet there are few studies exploring whether people's view of the crime rates of mentally ill people are correct or not. METHODS: A total of 363 college students participated in the present study. The present study first compared the official statistics of the crime rates of the mentally ill with the public perception. In addition, the rates of mentally ill offenders with previous convictions across crime types are compared with people's perception. RESULTS: Compared to the official crime statistics, people's estimates of crime rates of mentally ill offenders were grossly exaggerated across crime types, including fraud, assault, rape, robbery, theft, homicide, and arson. Furthermore, the rates of mentally ill offenders with previous convictions across all crime types on the official crime statistics were actually higher than people's estimates. CONCLUSION: The present findings reveal that people's view of the crime rates of mentally ill people is considerably distorted. There is an urgent need to clarify these prejudices in order to help people with mentally illness adjust to society and to prevent them from committing crime.

An Unusual Hanging Case Mistaken as Homicidal Strangulation in the Scene of a Fire / 대한법의학회지

Here, we report an autopsy case of an unusual hanging that was misinterpreted as a case of homicidal strangulation, as th body was found on the scene of a house fire. A 29-year-old unmarried woman hanged herself from the gas pipe using a bath towel. Subsequently, the pipe broke and a fire broke out after an explosion. However, as the initial postmortem investigation revealed the absence of cherry-pink lividity and as a burnt bath towel was found around her neck, this case was misunderstood as a case of arson after homicidal strangulation. The cause and manner of death in this case were finally determined based on the autopsy findings of ligature marks that are typically noted in cases of hanging and the presence of a burnt electric lock and a broden gas pipe that were noted at the suicide scene.

A Study of Similarities Between Bloodstain Pattern Analysis and Fire Investigation In Point View of Event Analysis / 대한법의학회지

Crime scene reconstruction is the use of scientific methods, physical evidence, deductive and inductive reasoning and their interrelationships to gain explicit knowledge of the series of events that surround the commission of a crime. Event analysis is the method of crime scene reconstruction. As disciplines of crime scene reconstruction, bloodstain pattern analysis and fire investigation have many common points. Comparing bloodstain pattern analysis with fire investigation in point view of event analysis helps us to further understand crime scene reconstruction as well as bloodstain pattern analysis and fire investigation themselves. We study event analysis and apply it to cases and we seek similarities and differences between bloodstain pattern analysis and fire investigation by analyzing the methodology of both of them. In a fire scene, the point with the greatest damage is the point where the fire burned longest, which is likely to be the origin. In bloodstained scenes this approach is reversed. The greatest bloodshed point is most likely the ending point of the incident and is likely at or near the point where the bloodshed started. Above this, there are other similarities between them. Mastering the crime scene reconstruction requires long time hard training. Thus if the fire investigation experts or arson experts among crime scene investigators join the field of bloodstain pattern analysis(or reverse), then there will be many synergy effects to both of them.

An overview of reported youth violence in Puerto Rico

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this paper is to describe the prevalence of school and youth violence in Puerto Rico based on several representative samples surveyed in the Island during the 1990's. BACKGROUND: Reviewing the available data on youth violence is necessary in order to decide the best strategies to follow in developing new ways to prevent and monitor it. METHODS: Three surveys were reviewed in this paper: The Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control (1991, 1995, 1997); The Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders Study (1991); and the Youth Survey (1997-98). RESULTS: It was found that the prevalence of reported school violence in Puerto Rico tends to be somewhat lower than the prevalence reported in other sites of the U.S.A. Age and gender has a dramatic influence in the reports of youth violence in Puerto Rico. Male students are three times as likely to carry weapons than females and almost twice as likely to report hurting someone than females. Less than 10 per cent of the male students ages 12-13 report carrying a weapon while fully 30 per cent of those 18 year olds reported carrying a weapon. Being arrested also increases from only 3 per cent in the youngest students surveyed to 10 per cent on the oldest group (18 or older). CONCLUSION: The CDC has recently reported that since the early 90's there has been a decrease in reported school violence in the U.S.A. This analysis of youth surveys replicated a similar tendency for Puerto Rican youngsters. Implications for prevention programs are discussed.

Changes of Characteristics of Mentally Ill Criminals: Between 1990 and 2000 / 대한법의학회지

The authors reviewed the medical records and additional data of 460 mentally ill criminals who had referred to National Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, from January 1990 to December 1990 (60 cases) and from January 2000 and December 2000 (394 cases). The demographic factors, characteristics of crime, psychiatric diagnoses and psychiatric opinions and legal opinions , and legal opinions were analyzed and the results are as follows. 1) The frequency of crimes by female, high education level and single status increased. 2) As to the psychiatric diagnosis, schizophrenia decreased whereas substance- use disorder, mood disorder and personality disorder were increased and kleptomania and anxiety disorder were added. 3) As to the types and feature of crime, homicide and violence increased, whereas arson decreased and larcency, violation of harzadous substance and violation of narcotic drug were added. 4) As to victims of crime, the frequency of crimes committed to strangers increased whereas that of the family members and their lelatives were decreased. 5) As to motivation of crime, the frequency of impulsivity increased but psychotic symptoms such as delusion and hallucination significantly decreased. 6) More that half of psychiatric tests were referred from the court, but the agreement rate between the judge 's opinions and psychiatric opinions was decreased. In Conclusion, the changes of charateristics of mentally ill criminal were attributed to sociocultural changes for mentally ill criminals and implimeted in Social Protection Law. As the judges do not completely agree to the psychiatric opinions, the close cooperation between the judges and the psychiatrist as legal adviser should be necessory for mentally ill criminals.

A Forensic Psychiatric Study for Substance-Related Offenders / 대한법의학회지

OBJECT: This study examined the demographic characteristics, abused substance types, comorbid psychiatric diagnosis and associated crimes of substance-related offenders. METHOD: We surveyed 205 offenders of substance-related crime from court. RESULT: Substance-related offenders were all men and most of them were unemployed, living alone in the major city and mean age was 27.9+/-5.77years. 78.5% frequently abused inhalants like adhesives and 17.1% abused the methamphetamine. They violated the 1 or more times and the classification of crimes was violence, rape and rape-injury, larceny, arson. Substance-related offenders had comorbid psychiatric disorder ; 26 of them had personality disorder, 23 had mood disorder and 13 had psychotic disorder. Mean hospital day was 14.8+/-6.55 months. CONCLUSION: Substance-related offenders were young single men without a job living major city. They had comorbid psychiatric disorder and high risk to commit crime.

Trastornos del control de impulsos / Impulse control disorders

Se revisan las patologías incluidas en este grupo de trastornos, sus antecedentes históricos y principales teorías etiológicas. Se destacan los aspectos forenses y se incluyen algunos antecedentes nacionales

A Study for the Mentally Disordered Offenders in Korea : A Statistic Review for 11 years of the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital / 대한법의학회지

The nationwide spreaded institutionalized mental disordered offenders admitted in the several mental hospitals were transfered in one time after opening in November 3, 1987 until the end of 1988. In 1989, new admitted MDOs were 5.8%, 107 among total 1849, 203 MDOs(11%) were admitted newly in 1997. The new admitted MDOs were increased every year. The diagnosis of total 1849 mental disordered offenders to be admitted during 11 years from November 3, 1987 to December 31, 1997.Schizophrenia is 69.8%, Epilepsy 0%, Personality disorders 4.0%, Mental Retardation 4.0%, Alcohol-related disorder 3.0%, Substance-related disorder(other than alcohol) 2.0%. The crimes of total 1849 MDOs for 11 years are as follows; Homicide 33.2%, Violence 19.2%, Manslaughter 12.5%, Stealing 8.1%, Arson 6.4%, Robbery 2.5%, Rape 2.2%,II-legal Substance Abuse 1.6%. Year average recidivism of MDOs for 11 years are as follows:1st crime 70.6%, 2nd crime 12.3%, 3rd crime 4.9%, 4th crime 3.7%, 5th crime 8.5%. The number 77(6.8%) among 1141 total discharged MDOs are admitted again after discharge from the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital. The readmitted 77 MDOs for 11 years according to crimes are as follows: Stealing 30(38.9%), Substance Abuse 14(18.2%), Violence 11(14.3%), Arson 5(7.8%), Robbery 5(6.5%), Rape 5(6.5%), Homicide 4(5.2%). The readmitted 77 MDOs for 11 years according to crimes are as follows:Stealing 30(38.9%), Substance Abuse 14(18.2%), Violence 11(14.3%), Arson 6(7.8%), Robbery 5(6.5%), Rape 5(6.5%), Homicide 4(5.2%). The readmitted 77 MDOs for 11 years according to diagnosis are as follows: Schizophrenia 36(46.7%), Substance Abuse 15(19.5%), Kleptomaina 6(7.8%), Mental Retardation 4(5.2%), Personality disorders 4(5.2%), Epilesy 1(1.3%), Delusional disorder 2(2.6%), Bipolar Disorder 2(2.6%), Alcohol dependency 1(1.3%). II. Mental evaluation for Criminal Responsibility The diagnostic classification of total 1422 Mental Evaluation for 11 years are as follows: Schizophenia 431(30.3%), Alcohol-related disorder 205(14.4%), Mood disorder 188(13.2%), Personality disorders 124(8.7%), Mental retardation 108(7.6%), Delusional disorder 67(4.7%), and mental disorder due to general medical condition 42(3.0%). The number sentenced to insanity are 597(44.9%) among total 1331, diminished capacity 546(41%), and 'normal' 188(14.1%).

An Epidemiological Observation of Fire Accident in Korea / 예방의학회지

Epidemiological and statistical observations were made of fire hazards that occurred during the past 18 years, 1948 to 1965. Injury and mortality rates for all ages were computed chronologically. For the years of 1955, 1961 and 1965, all fire accidents were epidemiologically analysed to draw characteristic pattern in relation to the seasonal and 24 hour distribution, causes and sites of accidents etc.. Fire hazards observed herein are the categorys E 916 of the International Classification of Causes of Death, 1955, and includes all accidents caused by fire and explosion of combustible materials. The following conclusion was made: 1. The average umber of annual deaths due to fire was 183 and the number of the injured due to the same cause was 335. The mortality rate per 100,000 population was 0.8 and the ratio of injures per death was 1.8. 2. The casualty rate including both the dead and injured was 5.0 per 100,000 in Seoul, the highest among the provinces and followed by 3.4 in Cheju-Do, 2.1 in Kangwon-Do, 1.7 in Kyunggi-Do accordingly. The other provinces had a range of 0.6 to 1.2. 3. The monthly distribution of fire accidents showed that the winter months, December through February, had more frequent accidents, while the summer season, June through August had less. The 24 hour distribution of accidents showed more cases from 12:00 to 18:00 and less from 4:00 to 10:00 hours. 4. The per cent distribution of causes of accidents showed; 90.0% for careless, 10.0% for arson. The cause of carelessness was further breakdown into; 15.0% for kitchen fire places, 13.8% for fire playing, 9.4% for electrical heating and wires, 8.3% for fuels, 6.3% for matches, 5.2% for ash dumps and the remaining for others. 5. The accidents as classified by place revealed that 56.8% of the total occurred at the common dwelling houses, 11.3 at various industrial workshops, 9.3% at the street shops and the remaining at the miscellaneous places.