Forensic psychiatry: Anatomy of a service

An examination of an urban forensic service over a 22 year period was undertaken by reviewing the records of 1195 defendants admitted. This revealed an increasing referral of violent and youthful defendants. Referral rates were highest for homicide. The prominent diagnosis seen was antisocial personality (27%), while schizophrenia (16%) was the next most common diagnosis. The reports to the court indicate an increasing tendency toward a finding of competency to stand trial as a result of increasing pretrial treatment. These data are compared to reports for other English-speaking forensic services and a correlation between admissions of schizophrenic defendants and a tendency toward relatively minor criminal offenses is seen.