Mental aberrations and other demographic factors influencing homicide

Bhattacharya P1, Chakraborty P2, Das S3, Maiti R4, Sharma M5

1Dr. Partha Bhattacharya, Assistant Professor, Department of FMT, R G Kar Medical College, 2Dr. Prabir Chakraborty, Associate Professor, Department of FMT, Calcutta Medical College, Calcutta, India, 3Dr. Somnath Das, Associate Professor, Department of FMT, R G Kar Medical College, 4Dr. Rina Maiti , Post Graduate Student, Department of FMT, Hi-Tech Medical College, 5Dr. Mukul Sharma, Post Graduate Student, Department of FMT, Hi-Tech Medical College,

Address for Correspondence: Dr Somnath Das, Email: somnath1976@rediffmail.com

Abstract

Introduction: It has been a long search for the identification of the personality trends among the people committing homicides. The present work searches for the type of personality disorder among the homicide offenders and identify its demographic profiles in a cross-sectional study at a correctional home at Kolkata. Methods: Psychiatric examination reports and crime reports of the offenders were subjected to forensic examination. [n=69]. Results: Most of the offenders were found to be male, aged more than 30 years, less educated and economically backward.  While delusional beliefs were found to be primary mental aberrations among the homicides. Conclusion: Homicide offenders do have a psychopathic trait and environmental influences also have an important role to play.

Key Words: Personality trends , homicide, mental aberrations.

Manuscript received: 21st Apr 2014, Reviewed: 25th Apr 2014
Author Corrected: 3rd May 2014, Accepted for Publication: 7th June 2014

Introduction

One man is different from another not only in his physical appearance and structure but also in his mental status, understanding capacity, tolerance, threshold of reaction and behavior. That is why in a common circumstance of passion, we find some to stay silent and others to cheer and even some may go violent, the degree of which again varies from one person to another. Similarly in a circumstance of perceptible frustration, one may take that easily, one may be revengeful while a third person suffering from such adverse reaction may commit suicide. It is doubtless that social environment of an individual affects the behavioral pattern of a subject to a great extent. But the variability of individual reaction in similar circumstance in a given social and environmental condition may indicate that there are other factors influencing the behavior pattern of a subject and that is also very important and cannot be ignored.

According to a recent study on Finnish homicidal adolescents, approximately 50% were diagnosed as having a conduct disorder or a personality disorder, while 7% of these offenders suffered from schizophrenia. Sixty-four percent of the adolescents were intoxicated by alcohol and 21% were under the influence of drugs at the time of the killing; however, as many as 32% of the offenders were considered not to suffer from a mental illness or substance abuse [1]. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mental aberrations among the homicide offenders and to compare these findings with their demographic profile, such a study in this part of the country.

Materials & Methods

The subjects for the study were chosen from inmates of a Correctional Home at Kolkata who committed homicide in different cases. They were taken to prison as either due to the commission of the act, or the subjects were placed inside the psychiatric ward of the correctional home where act of commission of the murder was found in some way or other related with some sort of their mental unsoundness. Psychiatric examination reports and crime reports of the offenders were subjected to forensic examination.

Exclusion criteria: Those who got acquittal due to mental unsoundness even after commission of murder and treated elsewhere or were somehow or other are at large could not be studied.

Results

Table 1: Age & sex distribution of homicide offenders

AGE [Years]

MALE

< 15

0

15--<20

2

20-- < 30

10

30--<50

29

50 ABOVE

28

Total

69

Table 2: Occupational data of subjects who committed homicide

Profession

No. of People

Cultivation

20

Unskilled labor

10

Unlawful means

10

Dependant

9

small business/ service

7

Unemployed

10

Student

3

Table 3: Educational background of subjects who committed homicide

Education level

Illiterate

Basic education

Higher education

Number of Cases

26

39

4

Table 4: Family type of the homicide offenders

Joint

Unit

54

15

Table 5: Number of the homicide offenders having some degree of mental aberration

Total Cases

69

Cases with mental  aberrations

34


Table 6: Distribution of different mental aberrations in homicide    

Mental states

Number of cases

Manic state

4

Schizophrenia

4

Depressive psychosis

4

Psychopath

3

Emotional outburst

5

Persecutory Delusion

12

Mental sub normality

2

Total

34

Table 7: Immediate causes of precipitating homicides believed by the offenders revealed during investigation

Cause

Male

Monetary

4

Sex related

2

Preplanned with persecutory belief

16

Impulsive

6

Discussion

This study comprised of 69 homicides of which some of them committed more than one homicide & some had previous history of commission of some other offences before committing homicides. Of the 69 such persons, 34 were proved to be mentally unsound by the way of medical evidences, history & other circumstantial evidences.
In the present study no female inmate was found with history of commission of homicides. This correlation is very robust: no matter which other variables are included or excluded from the regression, we found that the female-male ratio remained highly significant, always with a negative sign [2]. Most of the study populations were aged 30 years or above which is a bit different from the studies conducted abroad where approximately a third [34%] of murder victims and almost half [49%] of the offenders were under age 25 [3]. This may be due to the familial and financial pressure which is really a big concern among the people of the developing country. Whereas in the developed countries, from the perspective of situational perspectives, participation in the urban illicit economy increases the likelihood that youth will be involved in violent encounters and thereby amplifies their risk of committing murder [4].

Among the cluster of explanatory predictors, the most salient were environmental and socioeconomic rather than individual factors [4]. In the present study, profession wise, a large chunk of the subjects came from lower socio-economic group which may implicate that financial problems may have relationship with both insanity & crime of the homicides offenders. As it was identified, economic down turns increases acquisitive crime. Increases in acquisitive crime, in turn, produce increases in homicides by exposing more people to the rises of criminal life styles and to situations in which non-violent mean of resolving disputes are un available [5]. In our study, many of these people were illiterate or were just literate or had basic education [94%]. This suggests that a low education level combined with low socioeconomic status was responsible for insanity which was again responsible for commission of murder [6]. Hence education had some relationship with serious offences. It is established fact that poverty, rapid growth in population and mental disorders- are the influencing factors which led to the offences committed by the vulnerable individual [7].

Family environment and relationship was also an important factor. Most of our offenders were from a joint family. Weizmann et al found that victims of offenders with psychopathy are less often family members and more often strangers than is the case with other nonpsychopathic violent offenders [8]. However such observation was based on a group of female offenders. Most of the history reveals that some family problems were upsetting the mental condition of the subject. It is possible that the turmoil that occurs in a joint family may increase the stress up on a person which may account for their insanity or insecureness. Similarly lack of care of children in poor, large family may be responsible for childhood delinquency in which case, the subject may turn into a fully fledged criminal in future [9]. The facts that reflected from the above figures are that out of the established homicides 34, who were definitely insane they had different immediate cause for killing people, of which preplan with persecutory belief was the commonest. Persecutory belief as a common cause of murder has also been accepted by many trials abroad [10], whereas sexual homicides are a rare phenomenon.

In persecutory delusion, interfering agent may be animate or inanimate, other people or machines; may be system, organizations or institutions rather than individuals. Sometimes the patient experiences persecution as a vague influence without knowing who is responsible. May occur in conditions like: Schizophrenia, Affective psychosis: Manic, Depressive type and Organic states: Acute, chronic. Persecutory overvalued ideas are a prominent facet of the litiginous type of paranoid personality disorder [11]. Our study is no exception to some studies where paranoid delusion as a cause of murder is well established [12]. Almost one-third of the cases were suffering from Persecutory Delusion.

Summary and Conclusion

Homicide has definite relationship with commission of mental unsoundness of various types with socioeconomic & familial cases. But mentally unsound persons are more vulnerable to commit these offences though there is lack of motive or intent or desire. It was also apparent that good number of offenders tried to establish defense on the ground of insanity at the time of commission of the act though they may not be clearly insane. The theory of diminished responsibility should be taken as a reality with due consideration. Most of the precipitating causes of insanity were also the precipitating causes of homicide, incidences of which are to some extent preventable.

Funding: Nil, Conflict of interest: Nil
Permission from IRB: Yes   

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How to cite this article?

Bhattacharya P, Chakraborty P, Das S, Maiti R, Sharma M. Mental aberrations and other demographic factors influencing homicide. Int J Med Res Rev 2014;2(4):306- 310.doi:10.17511/ijmrr.2014.i04.07