Abstract

Purpose: The study aims to establish a summary of the main characteristics of gender, age, types of crimes and previous criminal records of the offenders sentenced to forensic-psychiatric care in the time period 1995 to 2018 in Sweden and to compare them with offenders sentenced to imprisonment for the same types of crime types in the same time period in Sweden as well as to link different types of crimes to mental illness. Furthermore, the study attempts to find correlations between the group sentenced to forensic-psychiatric care and different types of crimes.

Method: Using official statistical data from BRÅ, serious crimes, age, gender and criminal records for all individuals sentenced to forensic-psychiatric care during 1995 to 2018 are described together. This group was compared to all individuals which were convicted to prison in the same period. Furthermore, correlations between types of crimes and the group of individuals sentenced to forensic-psychiatric care were examined in order to find any statistical difference between the two groups.

Result: A few differences between the groups were found. The individuals in the forensic-psychiatric care group did not differentiate much in age, and also had similar criminal records, unlike the prison- group. Additionally, a meaningfully higher amount of women was prevalent in the forensic psychiatric care-group compared to the prison-group. A small correlation between individuals sentenced to forensic psychiatric treatment and arson were confirmed as well as stronger correlations with offenders sentenced to FPT and crimes of theft, vehicle theft, arson and homicide were found.

Conclusion: These findings provide data for future research as well as potential support for courts to identify more suitable treatment for offenders with a mental illness. Additionally, the findings in this paper presents the health care system and social services with opportunities to analyse and prevent trajectories into more serious offending in particular regards to individuals who are young and/or have a mental disorder.