CRIMINOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY

Abstract

The authors review scientific data about the main relationships between criminal phenomena and mental disorders. They study successively: the truth in psychocriminal matters
(truth of the real, psychological truth, truth of the file); false confessions, false accusations and
false victims; the firm conviction of the investigator, the psychiatric expert and the judge;
dangerousness and aggressiveness (impulsiveness, hatred, anger, drunkenness); risk factors
and anticipation of criminal risk; psychiatric diagnoses (psychoses, personality and mood
disorders, addictive behaviours, etc.); categories of violent crime (homicide, sexual assault,
arson) and non-violent crimes (theft and collectionism, fraud, anonymous threats, harassment). The article closes with considerations about the neuro-imagery of violence, the practice of mental expert assessment in France, criminal profiling and management of crisis
situations. The authors conclude that there are certain positive relations between violence,
crime and serious mental illness.