Psychiatric evaluations in offenders with mental illness: A case series

Background: The relation between mental illness and criminal offenses is controversial. In Taiwan, offenders with mental illness may be sentenced to custodial protection. Nevertheless, the recidivism rates remain high in such populations. Factors associated with recidivism among those offenders warrant further exploration. Methods: We retrospectively identified five persons with mental illness who had repeated forensic psychiatric evaluation for at least three times through reviewing forensic psychiatry records over the past decade at a psychiatric center. The related sociodemographic characteristics and psychiatric profiles in the 22 offenses were also collected and correlated with verdicts. Results: Those five offenders had family and personal histories of mental illnesses. They were relatively young at the first offense and unemployed, unmarried during the period of committing the offenses. Some offenders had a history of substance use, self-harm attempts, other criminal behaviors, and poor adherence to treatments before the offense. All the concluded characteristics of forensic psychiatric evaluations were consistent with the court judgments. Conclusion: Social dysfunction, poor adherence to treatments, history of substance use, and previous criminal records were prominent among those five repeated offenders.