Sex offenders found not guilty by reason of insanity: clinical and legal characteristics

Abstract

Sexual offenders constitute a diversified group with mixed specifics, motive and criminal acts. Significant evidences in research suggest that these offenders suffer from large proportions of psychiatric disorders, along with psychotic disorders, mood disorders, paraphilic disorders and Substance Use Disorders. It has been recently ascertained considerable percentages of personality disorders among sex offenders as well: borderline/narcisistic/antisocial. This is a cross-sectional study in which we included all the patients admitted in the 8 REMSs in Castiglione delle Stiviere from January 2009 to December 2018 sentenced for sexual offenses. The result of this study is that most of individuals found NGRI for a sexual offense have a psychotic disorder as a primary diagnosis. The majority of our sample was known by the local mental health services, even if the proportion of whom were not known was high.