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

Abstract

A few murders, which received saturated media coverage, obviously raises questions about the dangerous and violent nature of the mentally-ill, which can sometimes culminate in homicide. Firmly rooted in the collective consciousness is the popular idea that someone who kills an unknown person in the street is mentally-ill. On the contrary, the epidemiological data are reassuring; only 5% of such murders are committed by the persons suffered of schizophrenia. Aim To establish the social, clinical and forensic differences between murderers suffering of schizophrenia disorder and murderers who are immune of psychiatric disorder, and especially to compare their respective records of psychiatrics disorder and their respective relationship with their victims. Method We studied the cases of 210 murderers, the offences related to the murders, and the social and clinical information collected from psychiatric court reports on persons convicted of homicide. Firstly, we identified the sociodemographic, clinical and criminological profiles of a group of 210 murderers from which were distinguished the schizophrenia murderers. Then, we compared the profiles of murderers suffering from schizophrenia ( n = 14), with 73 persons without any mental disorder. Results The profile of schizophrenic murderers of our series is characterized by a specific socioprofessional status (single, without child and jobless) and by more frequent records of psychiatrist troubles (this characteristic is always found with criminals that are schizophrenics) and violence against human beings than murderers’ immune of mental disorder. With the exception of these variables and of the clinic of schizophrenia, there is no noticeable difference of sociodemographic profile between schizophrenic murderers and murderers without psychiatric troubles. In addition to the similarities, between the two groups of murderers, in the temporal, location and operating characteristics of the commitment of the homicide (in the evening, at the house of the victim, with three classical means (firearms, knife and knocks), having drunk alcohol), schizophrenic murderers generally commit, alone, a non-premeditated murder. They often strangle their victim in a sudden attack, whereas murderers without a known pathology often premeditate their crime. Therefore, it is possible to talk about a state of emotional violence. In 86% of cases, a delirious psychopathology was at the root of the homicide act of the schizophrenic person. Four criminological themes predominate: persecution, syndrome of influence, mysticism and megalomania. Among the victims of schizophrenic murderers, closest persons to and acquaintance of the murderers are over-represented; in 25% of cases the murder takes place within the family. Finally, penal irresponsibility or mitigation of penal responsibility of the schizophrenic murderer was generally recognized. Conclusion Differences between murderers affected with and unaffected with schizophrenia lie on the psychopathology of the morbid process which underlies the homicide of the mentally-ill person.