Dual diagnoses among detained female systematic offenders

Advances in Dual Diagnosis, < a href="http://emeraldinsight.com/toc/add/9/1" > Volume 9, Issue 1 < /a > , Page 7-13, February 2016. < br/ > Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of psychopathology including substance use disorders in a sample of detained female systematic offenders. Design/methodology/approach – All case files of female systematic offenders who had been subjected to a special court order for s ystematic offenders in the period 2004-2014 were studied. A total of 81 fairly complete case files were selected for the study. These were all systematic offenders as they had been sentenced for at least 25 offences with an average of 102 offences over a period of 17.5 years. Findings – All ex cept one woman were addicted to substances in the past year, with an average duration of addiction of 21 years. In addition, 53 per cent were diagnosed with another DSM Axis I disorder and 73 per cent were diagnosed with a personality disorder. Furthermore, 32-59 per cent were found to have intellec tual dysfunctions. In total, 12 per cent had one type of the above disorders, 43 per cent two types, 31 per cent three types and 14 per cent all four types. The prevalence rates of these disorders were higher than those reported in other prison studies. Research limitations/implications – It i s concluded that female systematic offenders can be characterised as problematic in many respects. Even in such a problematic group treatment can ...

Source: Advances in Dual Diagnosis - January 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research