REFLECTIONS ON THE SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC AND MEDICOLEGAL PROFILES OF FEMALE CRIMINAL DEFENDANTS

This article describes the sociodemographic and medicolegal characteri stics of 222 female criminal defendants referred by the courts to a fo rensic psychiatric service over a 10-year period. The typical female c riminal defendant was young, poorly educated, occupationally disadvant aged, unmarried, and from a broken home. Three Axis I diagnoses (schiz ophrenia, major affective disorder, and psychoactive substance use dis order) accounted for 55% of the psychopathology, whereas antisocial pe rsonality and borderline personality disorders accounted for 16% of pe rsonality disorders among the group. The most common charge was that o f property offenses.