The suicide were analyzed depending only on the death scene and cadaver features but not on the psychological autopsy (PA) that also enables the determination of the manner of death in China for a long time. There are significant differences between PA and the traditional risk assessment of suicide. The goals of PA are to find out the features of individuality, the patterns of behavior and the possible motives of suicide. The methods of PA involve investigating, collecting and analyzing all related information of the deceased. There are many limitations of PA in application mainly due to the lack of the standard procedures. Although an improved procedure has recently developed by Berman, many problems need to be solved before the actual application of PA in China.
Autopsy/psychology* ; Cause of Death ; Data Collection/statistics & numerical data* ; Forensic Psychiatry/methods* ; Humans ; Life Change Events ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Factors ; Suicide/statistics & numerical data* ; Suicide Prevention

OBJECTIVE: To explore the criminological characteristics of mental retardation (MR) in forensic psychiatry. METHODS: The record scale of forensic psychiatric assessment designed by ourselves was used to analyse the criminological characteristics of 83 offenders with MR, and to compare the criminological characteristics of mild MR with that of moderate and severe MR. RESULTS: The mild MR accounted for 62.7%, moderate and severe MR was 22.9%. The percentage of sex offenders in MR was 37.3%, manslaughter 34.7%, property offences 28.0%, respectively. Additionally, 96.1% cases with MR have definite criminal motives, and the criminal history was established in 34.7% cases. Significant differences of criminal premeditation (X2chi-squared l11,P=0.001), criminal aim(x2chi-squared 7.531, P=0.006), criminal motive(X 2chi-squared . 920, P= 0.019) and criminal types(s 2chi-squared .855, P=0.02) were found between the mild MR and the moderate, severe MR. CONCLUSIONS The criminal offenders were mostly found in mild MR. The sex offenders and manslaughter were in outright majority, and most of them had definite criminal motives. The proportion of offenders in mild MR who had criminal premeditation and criminal aim was higher significantly than which in the moderate, severe MR. The proportion of offenders in moderate, severe MR whose criminal motive was for sex was higher than that in mild MR.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Crime/statistics & numerical data* ; Expert Testimony ; Female ; Forensic Psychiatry/statistics & numerical data* ; Homicide/statistics & numerical data* ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability/psychology* ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Risk Factors ; Severity of Illness Index ; Sex Offenses/statistics & numerical data* ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To explore the criminal characteristics of alcohol-related offence in forensic psychiatric practice. METHODS: Ninety cases were collected according to our research criteria and were divided into two groups, ordinary drinking (OD) (63 cases) and chronic alcoholic (CA) (27 cases). Descriptive and comparative studies were conducted between the two groups. RESULTS: 54.0% OD group had induced incident compare with 22.2% CA group; 58.7% of OD group had a motive while 55.6% of CA group were with no clear motive; 66.6% of OD group had a chosen target, 51.8% of CA group with no clear target; 19.0% of OD group chose criminal time while only 3.7% of CA group did; 61.9% of OD took certain anti-detection means while 59.3% of CA group stayed at the scene. 98.4% of OD group was found guilty and only 3.7% of CA was found guilty. CONCLUSION OD group tends to have induced events, criminal motive, often are found to be guilty; CA group tends to be older, lacks awareness of self-protection during and after committing the crime, and usually is found not guilty or only partially responsible.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Alcoholism/psychology* ; Crime/statistics & numerical data* ; Criminal Psychology ; Female ; Forensic Psychiatry ; Homicide/statistics & numerical data* ; Humans ; Liability, Legal ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

It is an urgent global problem how to improve the violence risk assessment. As a necessary part of risk assessment, statistical methods have remarkable impacts and effects. In this study, the predicted methods in violence risk assessment from the point of statistics are reviewed. The application of Logistic regression as the sample of multivariate statistical model, decision tree model as the sample of data mining technique, and neural networks model as the sample of artificial intelligence technology are all reviewed. This study provides data in order to contribute the further research of violence risk assessment.
Artificial Intelligence ; Decision Trees ; Forensic Psychiatry/methods* ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk Assessment/statistics & numerical data* ; Risk Factors ; Violence/statistics & numerical data*

OBJECTIVE: To introduce and revise the Violence Risk Scale (VRS) for assessing violence risk and risk change, and to examine the reliability of Violence Risk Scale of Chinese version(VRS-C). METHODS: The original English version of the VRS was translated into Chinese according to established translation procedures. To examine the scorer reliability the 14 cases assessed by 3 assessors separately. One hundred and twenty-five patients with mental disorders from 3 different institutions in Sichuan province (Refined Control Ward in Ankang Hospital, Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Forensic Science and Mental Health Center of West China Hospital) were collected to examine the reliability of VRS-C. RESULTS: The results showed moderately good scale reliability of the VRS-C, with 0.80 of ICC for scorer reliability. All items have significant consistence with Cronbach's alpha coefficient as 0.921, split-half reliability as 0.906 and item total correlation as 0.246-0.849. CONCLUSION The reliability of the VRS-C version is acceptable.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; China/epidemiology* ; Educational Status ; Female ; Forensic Psychiatry/methods* ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Mental Disorders/psychology* ; Middle Aged ; Psychological Tests/standards* ; Psychometrics ; Reproducibility of Results ; Risk Assessment/standards* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Violence/statistics & numerical data* ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To study criminological characteristics of female violent criminal suspects who accepted forensic psychiatry assessment. METHODS: Information of the suspects involved in judicial appraisal between 2000 and 2009 were collected and analyzed according to our self-made scale. RESULTS: The age of 259 suspects were between 16 and 81 years old. There were 205 (79.2%) suspects who were younger than 45 years old. There were 225 (86.9%) suspects who were married. There were 14 different appraisal results: schizophrenia 47.1%, without psychosis 15.4%, depression 10.4% and others 27.1%. Irresponsibility involved with 59.5%, partial responsibility 18.5% and full responsibility 22.0%. Murder were 85.7%, arson 10.4%, inflicted injury 1.9% and robbery 1.9%. A total of 191 cases resulted in death, accounting for 82.3% of all cases. In 34.9% of all cases, the victims were male spouse of the suspects. Main weapons used in the crime were cutters and other working related tools (36.3%). There were 66.8% of all cases were with pathological motivation, 29.7% with reality motivation and 3.5% cases were with unknown motivation. CONCLUSION Female violent suspects in our cases often suffered from various kinds of mental diseases. Their motivations were pathological primarily. Most cases were intentional killing with family members as victim mainly. Major weapons used were daily working related tools.
Age Distribution ; Aggression/psychology* ; Crime/statistics & numerical data* ; Crime Victims/statistics & numerical data* ; Depression/psychology* ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Educational Status ; Expert Testimony ; Female ; Forensic Psychiatry ; Humans ; Marital Status ; Mental Disorders/psychology* ; Motivation ; Retrospective Studies ; Violence/statistics & numerical data* ; Women/psychology*

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the characteristics of recidivism in patients with mental disorders, including criminology, clinic and guardianship, in order to provide references for preventing recidivism. METHODS: Using the self-designed questionnaire, 156 psychotic patients who had repeated crimes were appraised by West China Forensic Science Center of Sichuan University from 2007 to 2011 and the data were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: In the majority of these cases, patients were male, 26-45 years old, junior high school or below diploma, unmarried, and farmers or jobless. Each patient broke law 3.26 times on average. The main crimes were intentional injury (34.6%) and murder (15.7%). Within 5 years after diagnosis with mental disorder, 56.4% of the patients committed first crime. Within 1 year after the first time breaking the law, 55.8% of them repeated crimes. The diagnoses of schizophrenia (63.5%) were in the majority. The assessment results were mostly irresponsibility (61.5%). Among the patients, 44.9% of them didn't receive treatment while 34.6% of them were out of supervision. After the first crime, 66.1% of them didn't receive criminal prosecution while only 7.1% of them went through the appraisement of forensic psychiatry. CONCLUSION Most of the patients had low education and low income. Meanwhile, low outpatient rate and pool supervision occurred in this special crowd. A good system for care and treatment of these mental patients should be built to prevent them from recidivism.
Adolescent ; Adult ; China/epidemiology* ; Crime/statistics & numerical data* ; Criminals ; Educational Status ; Female ; Forensic Psychiatry ; Homicide/statistics & numerical data* ; Humans ; Liability, Legal ; Male ; Mental Disorders/psychology* ; Middle Aged ; Personality Disorders/psychology* ; Recurrence ; Schizophrenia/epidemiology* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Violence/statistics & numerical data* ; Young Adult

Youth violence is a public health and social issue of global concern. It will be helpful to reduce the incidence of youth violence if the risk factors and prediction methods can be fully comprehended. This paper summarized the risk factors of youth violence in the aspects of the individual factors, the social psychological factors and the biological factors. Meanwhile, the status of prediction and assessment of youth violence are reviewed, with expectation to reduce youth violence and contribute to further research.
Adolescent ; Adolescent Behavior/psychology* ; Age Factors ; Craniocerebral Trauma/psychology* ; Family/psychology* ; Female ; Forecasting ; Forensic Psychiatry ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Juvenile Delinquency/statistics & numerical data* ; Male ; Models, Statistical ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Public Health ; Risk Assessment/methods* ; Risk Factors ; Socioeconomic Factors ; Violence/statistics & numerical data* ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To explore the value of Modified Overt Aggression Scales (MOAS) in assessing risk behavior of patients with mental illness. METHODS: Four hundred and ninety patients, who were from three mental health institutions (Refined Control Ward in Ankang Hospital, Mental Health Center of West China Hospital, Relief Ward in De Kang Hospital) belong to public security, health and civil system respectively, were evaluated with MOAS. RESULTS: Three hundred and thirteen patients did not have dangerous behavior, but 177 patients did (99 aggression, 78 violence). The descending order of risk behavior in patients with mental illness were Refined Control Ward in Ankang Hospital, Mental Health Center of West China Hospital, Relief Ward in De Kang Hospital. Physical and total aggression scores were higher in Refined Control Ward in Ankang Hospital than that in other two hospitals (P < 0.05). Autoaggression score in Mental Health Center of West China Hospital was higher than that in other two hospitals (P < 0.05). Physical and total aggression scores in male were higher than that in female (P < 0.05). Autoaggression score in female was higher than that in male (P < 0.05). Score of every single item and total score were higher in violent and aggressive group than that in non dangerous behavior group (P < 0.05). Physical and total aggression scores in violent group were higher than that in aggressive group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION The proportion, type and degree of risk behaviors in three mental health institutions are different and the type of risk behavior has gender difference.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Aggression ; Child ; Female ; Forensic Psychiatry ; Health Status Indicators ; Hospitals, Psychiatric/statistics & numerical data* ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Male ; Mental Disorders/psychology* ; Middle Aged ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ; Retrospective Studies ; Risk-Taking ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Violence/statistics & numerical data* ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: Study on the application of WAIS-RC short forms and adult intelligence disability scale in mental impairment assessment. METHODS: Mental impairment assessment cases between July 2009 and March 2011 in judicial appraisal institute of Taizhou University were collected. Assessment results obtained with the WAIS-RC short forms and adult intelligence disability scale were compared with the experts assessing conclusions and analyzed using SPSS 11.5 software. RESULTS: Assessment results with the two scales did not fully comply with the expert's conclusions, with reliability coefficient were 0.785 and 0.940 respectively, correlation coefficient were 0.850 and 0.922 respectively. CONCLUSION The intelligence assessment was influenced by many factors. When the appraised individuals had nerve dysfunction and mild intelligence disability or mental disorders, the two scales should be used together. When the appraised individuals had moderate intelligence disability or mental disorders, adult intelligence disability scale had advantage.
Accidents, Traffic ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Brain Injuries/complications* ; Disability Evaluation ; Expert Testimony ; Female ; Forensic Psychiatry ; Humans ; Intellectual Disability/psychology* ; Intelligence ; Male ; Mental Disorders/psychology* ; Middle Aged ; Reproducibility of Results ; Severity of Illness Index ; Wechsler Scales/statistics & numerical data* ; Young Adult