[The impact of socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors on the criminal behavior of patients with a psychotic disorder].

INTRODUCTION

The impact of socioeconomic and demographic factors on the criminal behavior of patients with a psychotic disorder was evaluated.

METHOD

The study included 70 psychotic men hospitalized in the forensic psychiatry unit of the Bakirköy State Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases for compulsory treatment who were compared to 70 psychotic disorder cases with no criminal history hospitalized in the acute wards in the same hospital. Socioeconomic and sociodemographic data were collected and statistical evaluations were made.

RESULTS

The vast majority of all the patients (90.7%) in both groups were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The forensic group was significantly less educated than the control group (7.99+/-3.81 years vs. 9.37+/-3.62 years, P<0.05). More than 50% of the cases in both groups were never married ; when considering divorced and widowed patients together with these unmarried patients, the percentage rose to 83%. Fewer forensic cases lived in urban areas than did control cases (50% vs. 84.3%). Logistic regression analysis highlighted a relationship between unemployment and the lack of social insurance to the criminal behaviour of the forensic group. Of those in the forensic group, 48.6% had no social insurance, whereas only 15.7% of the control group had none.

CONCLUSION

The data suggested that unemployment and the lack of social insurance are 2 independent variables that may contribute to the probability that patients with a psychotic disorder will engage in criminal behavior.