Volavka J, Mohammad Y, Vitrai J, Connolly M, Stefanovic M, Ford M
Clinical Research Division, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962, USA.
Psychiatr Serv. 1995 Aug;46(8):796-800. doi: 10.1176/ps.46.8.796.
The study was a preliminary exploration of the relatively new phenomenon of arresting psychiatric inpatients for offenses committed in the hospital.
A retrospective record review at two New York state hospitals identified all 73 inpatients arrested over a 30-month period for an offense committed while they were hospitalized. Logistic regression was used to compare arrestees with a control group of 1,438 non-arrested inpatients.
The number of arrests at the two hospitals significantly increased over the study period. Seventy-nine percent of arrests resulted from a violent incident. At least 68 percent of arrestees had been arrested previously. Compared with the control group, arrestees were more likely to be young, male, and black and to have a shorter length of stay. Axis I diagnoses did not differentiate arrestees from control patients. Ninety percent of arrestees had a diagnosis of substance use or personality disorder or both. The sample more closely resembled the population of criminal offenders in the community than the psychiatric inpatient population. Prosecution resulted in jail or prison terms for 11 percent of arrestees.
This descriptive preliminary study was limited by its retrospective nature and reliance on records of varying quality. Although the increase in arrests is clear, the cause of the increase and the impact of arrests on arrestees and hospitals remain to be clarified.
本研究对因在医院内犯罪而被逮捕的精神科住院患者这一相对较新的现象进行了初步探索。
对纽约州两家医院进行回顾性记录审查，确定了在30个月期间因住院期间犯罪而被逮捕的所有73名住院患者。采用逻辑回归分析将被逮捕者与1438名未被逮捕的住院患者组成的对照组进行比较。
在研究期间，两家医院的逮捕人数显著增加。79%的逮捕是由暴力事件导致的。至少68%的被逮捕者此前曾被逮捕过。与对照组相比，被逮捕者更可能是年轻男性、黑人，且住院时间较短。轴I诊断无法区分被逮捕者和对照患者。90%的被逮捕者被诊断患有物质使用障碍或人格障碍或两者皆有。该样本与社区中的罪犯群体更为相似，而非精神科住院患者群体。11%的被逮捕者被起诉并被判处监禁。
这项描述性的初步研究受到其回顾性性质以及对质量参差不齐的记录的依赖的限制。尽管逮捕人数的增加是明显的，但增加的原因以及逮捕对被逮捕者和医院的影响仍有待阐明。
