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Long-Term Recidivism of Mentally Disordered Offenders Considered “Dangerous to the Public” in Switzerland

Objectives: The commissions for risk assessment of offenders dangerous to the public were established in 1995 in Switzerland. The main goal was to reduce recidivism of offenders released into the community by means of identifying high-risk offenders and recommending measures for offender management....

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Autores principales: Schaffner, Daniela, Weber, Michael, Kochuparackal, Tanya, Graf, Marc, Hachtel, Henning
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8055864/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33889099
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.639936
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author Schaffner, Daniela
Weber, Michael
Kochuparackal, Tanya
Graf, Marc
Hachtel, Henning
author_facet Schaffner, Daniela
Weber, Michael
Kochuparackal, Tanya
Graf, Marc
Hachtel, Henning
author_sort Schaffner, Daniela
collection PubMed
description Objectives: The commissions for risk assessment of offenders dangerous to the public were established in 1995 in Switzerland. The main goal was to reduce recidivism of offenders released into the community by means of identifying high-risk offenders and recommending measures for offender management. This study investigates long-term recidivism data of this high-risk cohort of offenders. Methods: Baseline data included risk assessment of one of the commissions, the type of index offense, and psychiatric disorders according to ICD-10 for the total cohort of offenders examined by the commissions between 1995 and 2009. Criminal records were drawn in 2019 for all offenders from the Swiss Federal Office of Justice. Results: From a total of 147 offenders 35 recidivated within a median time at risk of 9.1 years (31.8%), of which 10 (9.1%) recommitted a severe offense. Within the treatment status, sentences (imprisonment and preventive detention) were compared to court-ordered measures (in- or outpatient court ordered treatment, civil court mandated treatment, vocational training facility). There were no significant differences comparing treatment status, different diagnostic groups, type of index offense and other risk factors. Except of age at release (or relapse), which predicted recidivism with younger subjects showing higher recidivism rates (p = 0.014). Conclusion: Our study showed that over a long-term time at risk this high-risk cohort showed a similar recidivism rate as many other studies with different cohorts. With appropriate management recidivism rates in high-risk offenders can be lowered allowing them being consecutively reintegrated into society. The finding that younger subjects have higher recidivism rate was reproduced in this population.
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spelling pubmed-80558642021-04-21 Long-Term Recidivism of Mentally Disordered Offenders Considered “Dangerous to the Public” in Switzerland Schaffner, Daniela Weber, Michael Kochuparackal, Tanya Graf, Marc Hachtel, Henning Front Psychiatry Psychiatry Objectives: The commissions for risk assessment of offenders dangerous to the public were established in 1995 in Switzerland. The main goal was to reduce recidivism of offenders released into the community by means of identifying high-risk offenders and recommending measures for offender management. This study investigates long-term recidivism data of this high-risk cohort of offenders. Methods: Baseline data included risk assessment of one of the commissions, the type of index offense, and psychiatric disorders according to ICD-10 for the total cohort of offenders examined by the commissions between 1995 and 2009. Criminal records were drawn in 2019 for all offenders from the Swiss Federal Office of Justice. Results: From a total of 147 offenders 35 recidivated within a median time at risk of 9.1 years (31.8%), of which 10 (9.1%) recommitted a severe offense. Within the treatment status, sentences (imprisonment and preventive detention) were compared to court-ordered measures (in- or outpatient court ordered treatment, civil court mandated treatment, vocational training facility). There were no significant differences comparing treatment status, different diagnostic groups, type of index offense and other risk factors. Except of age at release (or relapse), which predicted recidivism with younger subjects showing higher recidivism rates (p = 0.014). Conclusion: Our study showed that over a long-term time at risk this high-risk cohort showed a similar recidivism rate as many other studies with different cohorts. With appropriate management recidivism rates in high-risk offenders can be lowered allowing them being consecutively reintegrated into society. The finding that younger subjects have higher recidivism rate was reproduced in this population. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8055864/ /pubmed/33889099 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.639936 Text en Copyright © 2021 Schaffner, Weber, Kochuparackal, Graf and Hachtel. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Schaffner, Daniela
Weber, Michael
Kochuparackal, Tanya
Graf, Marc
Hachtel, Henning
Long-Term Recidivism of Mentally Disordered Offenders Considered “Dangerous to the Public” in Switzerland
title Long-Term Recidivism of Mentally Disordered Offenders Considered “Dangerous to the Public” in Switzerland
title_full Long-Term Recidivism of Mentally Disordered Offenders Considered “Dangerous to the Public” in Switzerland
title_fullStr Long-Term Recidivism of Mentally Disordered Offenders Considered “Dangerous to the Public” in Switzerland
title_full_unstemmed Long-Term Recidivism of Mentally Disordered Offenders Considered “Dangerous to the Public” in Switzerland
title_short Long-Term Recidivism of Mentally Disordered Offenders Considered “Dangerous to the Public” in Switzerland
title_sort long-term recidivism of mentally disordered offenders considered “dangerous to the public” in switzerland
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8055864/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33889099
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.639936
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