The dark figure of violence committed by discharged psychiatric inpatients
The Journal of Forensic Practice
ISSN: 2050-8794
Article publication date: 2 May 2022
Issue publication date: 28 June 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Official criminal justice statistics (e.g. arrest rates) underestimate the frequency of crime because not all crime gets reported to authorities, a phenomenon known as the “dark figure of crime.” The present study aims to examine the dark figure of violence committed by discharged psychiatric patients.
Design/methodology/approach
Multiple reporting modalities permitted a direct comparison between patients whose violence was officially detected to those whose violence was self-reported but not officially detected, along with differences in the nature of violent acts.
Findings
Only 5% of violent individuals were officially detected, 26% of violent individuals were both officially detected and self-reported their violent behavior, while 68% of violent individuals self-reported their violent behavior and were not officially detected. The type of violent acts did not vary as a function of whether they were officially detected or self-reported. However, differences were observed for the location of violence, the relationship to the victim and whether an injury resulted. Older individuals, those with prior arrests and those with higher psychopathy scores are some of the factors associated with an increased likelihood of officially detected violence.
Research limitations/implications
The data were collected from three sites in the USA. Generalizing the specific findings to other locations and countries ought to be done cautiously.
Practical implications
Studies ought to include multiple methods to measure violence. Self-report seems to be especially important to the extent one is concerned with measuring actual violence rather than violence that gets detected by legal authorities.
Originality/value
This study highlights an important limitation of relying exclusively on official criminal justice statistics when studying violence or recidivism in the community.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank John Monahan and his collaborators for the use of their data from the MacArthur Study of Mental Disorder and Violence.
Citation
Hardin, K. and Scurich, N. (2022), "The dark figure of violence committed by discharged psychiatric inpatients", The Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 229-240. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-11-2021-0058
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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