OBJECTIVES: This study will describe the demographic and clinical profile of forensic patients referred to VSMMC. It will describe the association between the ff: patients' mental disorder, their criminal offenses and the courts' decisions.
METHODOLOGY: This is a retrospective study of all forensic patients referred by the Judicial Courts for psychiatric evaluation from 1999-2003 to the VSMMC and whose residential address was in Cebu Province and its component cities. Data was obtained from the hospital's Outpatient Department records and from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology after securing permission to review their files. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software i.e. frequency, percentage, correlation coefficient and chi square test for independence.
RESULTS: Sixty-eight patients were included in the study. Majority of patients belonged to the age range of 20-39 years old (72.05%), mostly male (91.2%), single (67.65%), Roman Catholic (98.5%), from rural areas (83.8%) who reached either elementary (36.8%) or secondary (41.2%) levels but remained unemployed (77.9%). Majority (89.7%) of patients were diagnosed to have a psychotic disorder such as: Substance Induced Psychosis (41.2%), Schizophrenia (22.1%), Bipolar I (22.1%) and Brief Psychotic (4.4%). About a third of the cases (39.7%) were dismissed since these were less serious crimes such as illegal possession of methamphetamine HCl, theft, shoplifting and oral defamation; while 22.1% were convicted with serious crimes like murder, rape, homicide, and robbery. The correlation between patients' mental disorder and criminal offense committed was 24.496, while the correlation between the mental disorder and the judicial courts' decision was 21.937, both of which were statistically significant.
CONCLUSION: The mental disorder of the offenders had an influence on the type of crime committed and on the judicial courts.