The medico-legal status of young sex offenders: Forensic psychiatric evaluations in Sweden 1988-1995

Young sex offenders (YSOs) attract significant public and professional conc ern. YSOs might be perceived as more psychologically deviant or dangerous t han other offenders. This study focused on how often YSOs subjected to fore nsic psychiatric investigation (FPI) were declared medico-legally insane as compared to young non-sex offenders and adult sex offenders. Logistic regr ession models were applied to data from all major FPIs performed in Sweden between 1988 and 1995 (N = 4354) to explore factors affecting the likelihoo d of receiving a medico-legal insanity declaration. When we adjusted for th e statistical effects of age, sex offender status, and psychopathology, YSO s (n = 47) were three to four times more likely to be declared insane in th e medico-legal sense. The results indicate that YSOs in Sweden constitute a medico-legally distinct subgroup of forensic psychiatric examinees. Copyri ght (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.