Demographic, Clinical and Forensic Profiling of Alleged Offenders Diagnosed with an Intellectual Disability

ABSTRACT

Forensic psychiatry and forensic psychology study the link between mental health and the law. These forensic behavioral sciences play a vital role when assessing both a person’s competency to stand trial and the degree to which criminal responsibility can be attributed to the perpetrator of alleged offenses by the criminal justice system. Offenders with a suspected intellectual disability are frequently referred for forensic evaluations by courts of law and possible psychosocial rehabilitation thereafter. The aim of this study was to determine the demographic, clinical and forensic characteristics of alleged offenders diagnosed with an intellectual disability who were referred to Forensic Units at a Psychiatric Complex under Sections 77, 78 and 79 of the South African Criminal Procedure Act no. 51 of 1977. A data collection form was used to gather information from the clinical files/records of the 120 participants studied throughout the course of this research project. Participants were mainly Black African males (95.8%), the majority of whom had been diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability (70.8%). These offenders were largely accused of sexual offenses. The majority of the subjects were deemed to be neither competent to stand trial nor criminally responsible for their alleged offenses because of intellectual disability. This study provides valuable information on the relationship between intellectual disability and the types of crimes committed by intellectually disabled individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Forensic
• mental health
• law
• intellectual disability
• competency
• criminal responsibility

Disclosure statement

There are no conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was sourced from a third party.