Crime and violence among mental patients reconsidered in view of the new legal relationship between the state and the mentally ill.

The author compared the arrest rates of 301 former state mental hospital patients with those of the local county population and selected U.S. cities. He found that the patients had a markedly higher incidence of arrests for criminal behavior, including violent offenses, than either of the comparison groups. Patients who were female, aged 20-30, and nonwhite had higher arrest rates for violent offenses than the rest of the study group. These findings are at variance with those of earlier studies but are in general agreement with more recent studies. The author suggests the need for further research in order to more completely identify those factors which explain the high crime rate among the mentally ill.