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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Older criminals
— a descriptive study of psychiatrically examined offenders in Sweden | | Author(s) | Seena Fazel, Martin Grann |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 17, no 10, October 2002 |
| Pages | pp 907-913 |
| Keywords | Offenders ; Mental disorder ; Diagnosis ; Screening ; Sweden. |
| Annotation | In Sweden, structured court-ordered forensic psychiatric evaluations of older offenders are undertaken by a forensic psychiatrist team. Data on age, sex, citizenship, psychiatric diagnosis, offences, and legal insanity were obtained for the years 1988 to 2000. There were 210 forensic psychiatric evaluations for those aged 60+. 7% had a diagnosis of dementia, 32% psychotic illness, 8% depressive or anxiety disorder, 15% substance abuse or dependence, and 20% personality disorder. Older offenders were significantly less likely to be diagnosed within schizophrenia or a personality disorder, and more likely to have dementia or an affective psychosis compared to younger ones. Of the factors studied, the ones most typical of older offenders were a diagnosis of dementia and being charged with a sexual offence. There appear to be important differences in psychiatric morbidity between older and younger offenders who come into contact within psychiatric services. Research such as this may help with planning forensic and psychiatric services for the increasing number of older people passing through the criminal justice system. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-021109205 A |
| Classmark | TGC: E: LK7: 3V: 76P |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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