Criminality and mental illness: a study of arrest rates in a rural state

Abstract

The authors examined cumulative arrests for the period of 1964-1973 for psychiatric patients admitted to a state hospital in 1969 (286 men and 175 women) and for the general population in Wyoming. Male patients were arrested as often as or more often than individuals in the general population. No men diagnosed as schizophrenic were arrested for crimes against persons; one-fourth of arrests among individuals diagnosed as alcoholics were for such crimes. Arrest rates among women patients seemed to parallel those of women in the general population, although the sample was too small for definite conclusions. Male patients were arrested significantly less often following dischanrge than before hospitalization.