Mortality among habitually violent offenders

There are no published studies about mortality among habitually violent off enders, although it would be essential to take into account the possibly hi gher mortality rate of this population, when the incidence of committing vi olent offenders is calculated as a function of age. We studied mortality du ring the age range 30-50 years among 102 habitually violent male offenders, who were considered to be dangerous to the lives of other people, during t he 24.5-year period 1971-1995 (in the range 3.5 months-24.5 years, the aver age prison time was 6 years, 7 months and 11 days). In Finland, the deathra te in the group of men aged 30-50 years is 3.7/1000/year, but among these h abitually violent male criminals, the mortality rate was observed to be 18. 1/1000/year. Therefore, the relative risk for dying in this age group was 4 .9-fold when compared with the normal male population aged 30-50 years. A f inding of this magnitude has a substantial effect, when the real incidence of committing homicides or other violent offenses is calculated as a functi on of age. This is an important issue in forensic psychiatry, since it is g enerally believed that the incidence of committing violent crimes is decrea sed between the ages of 30 and 50 years, and age is used as one predictive factor when the risk of forthcoming violent behavior is assessed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.