Risk-Taking Behaviour and Criminal Responsibility: A Preliminary Investigation with Offenders and Forensic Psychiatric Patients

Roxana E Moghaddam,Monica F Tomlinson

doi:10.35248/2475-319x.19.4.152

Abstract

The present study investigated whether individuals found criminally responsible (CR) differ from individuals found Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD) on behavioural measures of risktaking. Risk-taking was measured using two computerized tasks, the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). CR individuals were hypothesized to show greater risk-taking behaviours compared to NCRMD individuals. Performance on the IGT and BART was also hypothesized to predict NCRMD or CR group membership. Thirty-eight forensic psychiatric patients and offenders participated in this study. A t-test and logistic regression were conducted to address these hypotheses. No significant differences in risk-taking were found between NCRMD and CR individuals on the IGT and BART. Further, performance on the IGT and BART did not predict NCRMD or CR group membership. These results suggest that NCRMD and CR individuals are similar in levels of risk and may be similar in other criminogenic needs that have not been studied here. Future research is needed to understand the extent to which the rehabilitative needs of forensic psychiatric patients and offenders overlap.

Highlights

Descriptive statistics were computed for the NCRMD and criminally responsible (CR) group for a number of Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) variables (Table 2)
NCRMD and CR participants were compared on their choices of “non-risky” and “risky” decks across five 20-trial blocks of the IGT (Figures 1 and 2)
The NCRMD and CR groups are visually similar for both “non-risky” and “risky” deck choices across all five blocks of the IGT

Summary

Introduction

In these cases, through a court-ordered assessment, the court is deciding that these individuals do not have the decision-making ability to have criminal intent at the time of their offence. For individuals with serious mental disorders (e.g., schizophrenia) who committed crimes while ill, a court-ordered assessment of criminally responsibility is required to determine whether the mens rea condition is satisfied for the crime in question, termed the index offense This assessment may require the accused person to be detained in a forensic psychiatric hospital and evaluated for several weeks to months [3]. Participants who select cards from decks A and B will lose more money than if they had selected cards from C and D [16]

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion