Homicide et schizophrénie : à propos de 14 cas de schizophrénie issus d’une série de 210 dossiers d’expertises psychiatriques pénales pour homicide

L’article 122-1 et après ? Devenir des patients reconnus irresponsables sur le plan pénal, entre 2015 et 2019, dans l’Ouest de la France

“…Aussi, selon des études internationales, seuls 5 à 10% d'individus atteints de troubles mentaux sont auteurs d'homicide et les individus présentant un trouble mental sévère seraient les auteurs de 5% des infractions criminelles avec violence (21,22). L'homicide est un acte rare et il est encore plus rarement l'acte d'un schizophrène : 95% des meurtriers ne sont pas des schizophrènes (23). Il existe bien une association entre maladie mentale et violence mais cette violence est d'origine multifactorielle : la maladie mentale à elle seule ne constitue pas un facteur de risque.…”

Reflexive and automatic violence: a function of aberrant perceptual inhibition.

“…All were committed by schizophrenic patients, and all shared distinctive features; none of the 14 homicides appear to have been premeditated, all were committed alone, and all used available means (eg. bare hands) [14].…”

“…The caveat here is that both the author of the study attributes a motivation to this unpredictability; "Instilling the sense of fear that a physical attack is possible at any moment is one way battering men control their partners" [32]. Like the observations of Richard-Devantoy, Duflot [14], these attacks appear to be spontaneous and unpremeditated, because assailants 'mostly' used available means -victims were 'hit with objects such as telephones, lamps, chairs' [32]. To link these assailants to the psychiatric ones further, victims reported noticing symptoms that are characteristic of severe psychiatric conditions, such as "psycho eyes" and degraded speech patterns [32].…”

“…But more commonly, in cases of sudden psychiatric violence, the opportunity is not suggested by the weapon, but rather by the presence of a vulnerable victim. Violence of this sort is sudden, unplanned and direct -usually the attack is done with bear hands [3,14,35]. Although these circumstances are more common, in either case -the violence emerges spontaneously from the perception of an opportunity.…”

“…Grandiose and manic-delusional narratives are where violence is motivated by a swollen sense of selfempowerment or sense of entitlement; and altruistic narratives, where violence is regrettable, but believed to be essential for the greater good [8,13,14]. In these paradigms the delusionary motivations for violence are considered to be a product of psychiatric illness, but the mechanism that turns perception into actus reus are still unquestioned.…”