Journal Article

Criminal Victimisation in People with Severe Mental Illness: A Multi-Site Prevalence and Incidence Survey in the Netherlands

Nijssen, Yolanda, Mulder, Cornelis L., Wierdsma, André I., Kamperman, Astrid M., van Weeghel, Jaap, Henrichs, Jens, Kroon, Hans, Delespaul, Philippe A., Teplin, Linda A., Bogaerts, Stefan, van der Gaag, Mark, Theunissen, Jan R., Lesaffre, Emmanuel M. E. H., Ghauharali, Razia R. R., van Busschbach, Jooske T., Swildens, Wilma, van de Mheen, Dike

2014

Overview

Although crime victimisation is as prevalent in psychiatric patients as crime perpetration (and possibly more so), few European figures for it are available. We therefore assessed its one-year prevalence and incident rates in Dutch severely mentally ill outpatients, and compared the results with victimisation rates in the general population. This multisite epidemiological survey included a random sample of 956 adult severely mentally ill outpatients. Data on victimisation were obtained using the victimisation scale of the Dutch Crime and Victimisation Survey, which assesses crime victimisation over the preceding 12 months. Comparison data were derived from the nationwide survey on safety and victimisation in the Netherlands. Prevalence and incident rates were weighted for sex, age, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, and compared with a general population sample matched by region (N = 38,227). In the past year, almost half of the severely mentally ill outpatients (47%) had been victim of a crime. After control for demographic differences, prevalence rates of overall and specific victimisation measures were significantly higher in severely mentally ill outpatients than in the general population. The relative rates were especially high for personal crimes such as violent threats (RR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.72-2.61), physical assaults (RR = 4.85, 95% CI: 3.69-6.39) and sexual harassment and assaults (RR = 3.94, 95% CI: 3.05-5.09). In concordance, severely mentally ill outpatients reported almost 14 times more personal crime incidents than persons from the general population (IRR = 13.68, 95% CI: 12.85-14.56). Crime victimisation is a serious problem in Dutch severely mentally ill outpatients. Mental-healthcare institutions and clinicians should become aware of their patients' victimisation risk, and should implement structural measures to detect and prevent (re-)victimisation.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adolescent / Adult / Aged / Assaults / Behavioral sciences / Comparative analysis / Consent / Crime / Crime - statistics & numerical data / Crime Victims - psychology / Crime Victims - statistics & numerical data / Data Collection / Demographics / Developmental psychology / Drug abuse / Epidemiology / Ethnicity / Female / Health care / Health services / Homeless people / Humans / Incidence / Male / Measures / Medicine / Mental disorders / Mental Disorders - physiopathology / Mental Disorders - psychology / Mental health care / Mentally ill persons / Mentally Ill Persons - psychology / Middle Aged / Minority & ethnic groups / Netherlands / Offenses / Outpatients / Parnassia / Patients / Polls & surveys / Population / Prevalence / Psychiatric hospitals / Psychiatry / Psychology / Psychosis / Risk Factors / Sex crimes / Sexual harassment / Social and Behavioral Sciences / Socioeconomic status / Socioeconomics / Studies / Trauma / Victimization / Violence / Women