Crime, mental illness, and older people

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Yorston
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
The Past ◽  
Victims Of Crime

Though older people are less commonly the victims of crime than younger people, they fear the consequences of crime more, and are particularly vulnerable to certain types of crime. There have been difficulties in older people getting access to justice in the past, though this is now improving as the police and prosecuting authorities have become more sensitive to the needs of older people as witnesses. Older people commit far fewer offences than younger adults, but offending in late life can be a direct consequence of a range of mental disorders including depressive psychosis, organic personality change and dementia. Older mentally disordered offenders present different assessment, diagnostic and management challenges to their younger counterparts and specialist secure psychiatric services have evolved to meet their needs. The number of older people in prison has increased dramatically and depression is very common in this group, though it often goes unrecognised and untreated.

Forensic Psychiatry and Older People - a UK Perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
G. Yorston
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
The Past ◽  
Older Prisoners ◽  
Forensic Psychiatric ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Psychiatric Beds

The number of older people in prison has quadrupled in the UK in recent years, such that older prisoners now make up 2.6% of the total prison population, despite the fact that the number of offences committed by older adults has remained static. Older prisoners have high levels of psychiatric and physical morbidity, and forensic psychiatric services are receiving increasing numbers of referrals of older adults. In the past, few of these referrals resulted in admissions to secure psychiatric beds, however, reflecting a reluctance by forensic psychiatrists to admit older adults, who were perceived as being at risk from younger patients. Over the past 10 years, however, specialist secure inpatient units have been established in the UK for the assessment and management of older mentally disordered offenders. This seminar will explore the research evidence and clinical experience relating to this group of patients.

Do Older People Receive Equitable Private Psychiatric Service Provision Under Medicare?

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 626-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian M Draper ◽  
Annette Koschera
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Psychiatric Service ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Item Statistics ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Medicare Expenditure

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the 1998 rates, types, regional variation and Medicare expenditure of private psychiatry services for older people in Australia, as compared with younger adults and with 1985–1986 data. Method: Medicare Benefits Schedule Item Statistics for the psychiatric item numbers 300–352 and item 14224 were obtained from the Health Insurance Commission for each State and Territory. The items were examined in the age groups 15–64 years, 65 years and over and 75 years and over. Main outcome measures were per capita service provision by age group, State and Territory and Medicare expenditure by age group. Results: During 1998, 6.4% (5765.6 per 100 000) of private psychiatric services were to patients aged > 64 years. Patients aged 15–64 received 2.7 times the number of psychiatric services per capita than patients > 64 and 3.6 times that of patients aged > 74 years. Patients aged > 64 received more hospital and nursing home consultations, home visits and electroconvulsive therapy per capita, while younger adults used more office-based consultations, longer consultations, and group therapy. Victoria had the highest per capita rate (7659.2 per 100 000) and the Northern Territory the lowest (540.4 per 100 000), although the highest proportion of services to older patients was in Western Australia. Per capita the proportion of Medicare expenditure allocated to adults aged less than 65 years was 4.1 times that for adults over 64 years. Conclusions: Private psychiatric service provision to older people is inequitable when compared with younger adults. The proportion of Medicare private psychiatry expenditure on older adults has declined since 1985–1986.

scholarly journals Older victims of crime: Vulnerability, resilience and access to procedural justice

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin J Brown ◽  
Faith Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Comprehensive Examination ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Victims Of Crime ◽  
Unequal Access

This article provides the first comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of unequal access to procedural justice for older victims of crime. It analyses quantitative and qualitative data exploring the interactions of older people with the criminal justice system of Northern Ireland. It identifies that older victims of crime are less likely to have a successful crime outcome (known as ‘detection’ or ‘clear-up’ in other jurisdictions) to their case when compared to other adults. The results provide evidence of a system failing to adequately take into account additional vulnerabilities that disproportionately impact on older victims’ ability to engage with the justice process. There is an analysis of the relationships between vulnerability, resilience and access to justice. The current conceptual understanding of vulnerability as applied to older people within the justice system is challenged. The findings are relevant for researchers and policy-makers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and further afield concerned with the treatment of older and vulnerable victims by the justice system.

Older people as victims and perpetrators of crime

2020 ◽  
pp. 871-892
Author(s):  
Claudio Di Lorito ◽  
Birgit Vӧllm
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care ◽  
Older People ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Care Needs ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Older Offenders ◽  
The Family ◽  
Victims Of Crime ◽  
Forensic Psychiatric ◽  
Growing Population

Older people are at a higher risk of becoming the victims of crime than of being the perpetrators of it, given the added vulnerability that comes with aging. This chapter examines crime in relation to old age. The first section presents data around older people as victims of crime, and further discusses different types of abuse against older people, which, in the presence of intensive care needs and carer burden, may be perpetrated within the family or in residential and institutional settings. The second section of the chapter examines older people as the perpetrators of crime. In particular, it describes how older offenders are dealt within the justice system. It presents data on the growing population of older offenders in prisons and in forensic psychiatric services and reports on whether the unique needs of older offenders are being met in these settings.

A profile of mentally disordered offenders admitted to inpatient psychiatric services in the United States.

1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry J. Steadman ◽  
Marilyn J. Rosenstein ◽  
Robin L. MacAskill ◽  
Ronald W. Manderscheid
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered

Review of psychiatric services to mentally disordered offenders around the Pacific Rim

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanna Every-Palmer ◽  
Johann Brink ◽  
Tor P. Chern ◽  
Wing-Kit Choi ◽  
Jerome Goh Hern-Yee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Rim ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
The Pacific

The interface between general and forensic psychiatry: a historical perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 350-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harvey Gordon ◽  
Vivek Khosla
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Forensic Psychiatry ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
List Type ◽  
Type Number ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Uk

SummaryMental disorder and criminality are separate entities but some people with a mental disorder commit criminal offences and some criminals have a mental disorder. Before 1800 there was no separate category of mentally disordered offenders (referred to as criminal lunatics until 1948) in UK legislation. The provision of facilities for mentally disordered offenders in Britain and Ireland overlapped with, but was also separate from, provision for the mentally ill generally. The interface between general and forensic psychiatry is an area of tension and of collaboration. To understand how contemporary general and forensic psychiatry interact, it is useful to have an understanding of how factors have evolved overtime.Learning Objectives•Have an understanding of the evolution of general and forensic psychiatry in the UK over the past 200 years.•Comprehend the similarities and differences between general and forensic psychiatry.•Be aware of some of the roots of conflict between general and forensic psychiatry.

scholarly journals Access to Justice for Older People in Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susannah Sage-Jacobson
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Service ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
The Past ◽  
Adverse Impacts ◽  
Complaint Handling ◽  
Life Circumstances

The past decade in Australia has seen renewed policy interest in access to justice. In turn this has highlighted the need for evidence-based research on the legal needs of socially and economically disadvantaged groups. Older persons, or people over the age of 65, have been recognised as a distinctly burdened group who are vulnerable to substantial and distinctive legal problems with adverse impacts on their life circumstances. Yet the legal needs of this group remain largely unmet, hidden from the legal service providers and complaint handling bodies. This article provides an overview of recent research on legal needs in Australia and internationally. It explains that there needs to be further targeted empirical research to identify the substantive reasons why older people do not currently enjoy equality before the law.

scholarly journals Psychiatric services for remanded mentally disordered offenders: the Brixton Diversion Project

1993 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 608-609
Author(s):  
Kamaldeep Bhui ◽  
Phillip Brown ◽  
Ros Savournin ◽  
Janet Parrott
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorder ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Mentally Disordered

There is growing concern about the care received by mentally disordered offenders (MDOs). The prevalence of psychiatric disorder among the remanded group has received considerable attention (Coid, 1988). Some MDOs are remanded in custody following even petty offences on account of their vulnerability or because their homelessness prejudices bail. Where the offence is serious a remand in custody may be inevitable.

An Audit of Urgent Referrals by the Procurator Fiscal to the Tayside Forensic Psychiatric Service

2005 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-316
Author(s):  
T White ◽  
H Rutherford
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Service ◽  
Psychiatric Services ◽  
Mentally Disordered Offenders ◽  
Early Assessment ◽  
Home Office ◽  
Mentally Disordered ◽  
Diagnostic Characteristics ◽  
Forensic Psychiatric ◽  
Over Time

This study describes the demographic, offence and diagnostic characteristics of subjects referred by the Procurators Fiscal operating from three courts in Tayside, Scotland. A comparison is made of referrals made between 1988 to 1995 and 1997 to 1998. There was an increased rate of referral on an urgent basis over time, primarily involving patients already in contact with the psychiatric services, 37% of whom were detained and admitted to hospital. This urgent assessment ensured that mentally-disordered offenders were not remanded in custody simply for the preparation of a report, and it allowed an early assessment to be made regarding the suitability for diversion from prosecution. This outcome is compatible with guidelines issued by the Home Office in 1990 (Home Office, 1990).

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