Gender difference in mentally ill offenders: A nationwide Japanese study

The entire population of 2,094, mentally ill offenders who were adjudicated as partially or fully not criminally responsible on account of mental diso rders during the years of 1980 and 1994 throughout Japan were studied Men w ere predominant. More than 60%, of the participants had previously received psychiatric treatment. Schizophrenia and other psychoses were the most com mon diagnoses among both males and females. Females were more likely to be charged with violent crimes, and half of them committed homicide. Females a ttacked family members more often, and they were diagnosed with depression more often than were males. In contrast, males were more often charged with nonviolent crimes and had a greater number of criminal records. Despite th e fact that persons diagnosed solely with personality disorders were largel y excluded from the study male mentally ill offenders still shared more neg ative demographic factors with male criminals in general, such as being unm arried having a lower educational level, a poorer employment history, chaot ic lives, and substance abuse problems.