Caractérisation clinique et criminologique des meurtriers âgés présentant une démence

Abstract

Homicide is an extreme outcome of violence which is infrequent in older adults, with a prevalence ranging from 1% to 4%. In those cases, homicide is usually followed by suicide.Homicide appears in different psychopathology contexts: mood disorder, alcohol disorder and psychosis disorder. An association of mild to moderate dementia with homicide has been reported. The risk factors of homicide in demented patients remain unknown. Dysexecutive syndrome could be a cause of homicide in demented patients. The reported case highlights this issue and shows that neuropsychiatric evaluation of older murderers could be useful in understanding the murder. Clinical and criminological characteristics of elderly murderers with a dementia will also be discussed.