REPEATED MURDERS COMMITTED BY SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS: EXPLORING CAUSES OF INEFFECTIVE FORENSIC COMPULSORY TREATMENT
The authors analyze the causes of repeated severe offences (murders) committed by schizophrenic patients. The subject is complex and multifaceted and this paper deals with faults of the forensic compulsory treatment system. Material: 51 schizophrenic patients that committed repeated murders; 51 schizophrenic patients that committed single murders and 51 schizophrenic patients that did not violate law. Investigation reveals a number of inadequate preventive measures that should originally be aimed at reduction of potential dangerousness of schizophrenic patients including faulty diagnosis, inadequate use of medication and biological treatments, insufficient access to outpatient psychiatric care, difference between the type of compulsory treatment recommended by forensic psychiatric experts and the one ordered by the court, unequal availability of social-rehabilitation programs: well developed in high-security special hospitals and insufficient in other hospitals. The mentioned factors play an important role in repeated offences and their significance is confirmed by evidence-based medicine.