Gathered MMPI and demographic data on six groups of 25 men each who had been remanded by the courts to a maximum security psychiatric hospital for pretrial assessment. The groups differed according to offense type: Murder or attempted murder of a family member or girlfriend, murder or attempted murder of an unrelated victim, rape, arson, child molesting, or property. The MMPI profiles of the groups were remarkably similar, and the prediction that the murder family group would have the highest Overcontrolled Hostility scores was not supported. Multiple discriminant analyses showed that the remand's age on admission and whether he had been in corrections before the current offense were the best discriminators among the groups. These data indicate that the MMPI is not related to the offense types of mentally disordered offenders referred by the courts for assessment, but does reflect their relatively high levels of psychopathology.

No abstract

Readmission and criminal conviction data were obtained for 60 men who had been released from a maximum security psychiatric hospital for an average of 39 months. Twenty of the men had been readmitted to the security hospital or been convicted of an offense during that time. Men who had been found unfit to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity before their admission were less likely to get into difficulty upon release than men who had been admitted for other reasons. Patients who got into trouble after their release were more likely to be diagnosed as personality disordered and to be under 31 years of age upon release. A number of other variables were also related to postdischarge adjustment.

No abstract

Two hundred six male discharges from a maximum security psychiatric institution were followed up for a 37–49 month period. Failures were defined as men with new convictions or a readmission to the security hospital. Forty-six percent of the sample failed, usually by the commission of minor property offenses, and 17% of the total committed at least one violent offense against persons. As in earlier studies of patients discharged from this hospital, younger, personality disordered patients were more likely to fail. Younger, personality disordered patients were also more likely to commit a violent offense than older, nonpersonality disordered patients.