The process of overcoming the OPG and its effects in the application of security measures

Abstract

Law 180/1978 determined the closure of Psychiatric Hospitals and the transition of public services to a model of community psychiatry in Italy. This change did not affect the Forensic Psychiatric Hospitals, which were closed many years later with Law 81/2014. Twenty years of judgments concerning defendants with substantially diminished or excluded criminal responsibility by reason of insanity are evaluated. The authors analyzed the possible relations between the frequency of the application of psychiatric security measures and the jurisprudential pronouncements and actions by the legislator occurred in the same period. Security measures have increased in a manner not specifically related to a single event among those taken into consideration; in particular, non-custodial measures have risen steadily from 8.5% in 2001 to 88.2% in 2019. The consequences of this trend for the activity of the Departments of Mental Health are discussed, also in light of the ongoing debate on the outcomes of the reform.