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The British Journal of Psychiatry (2002) 181: 473-480
© 2002 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Ethnic differences in prisoners

1: Criminality and psychiatric morbidity{dagger}

JEREMY COID, MD, FRCPsych and ANN PETRUCKEVITCH, MSc

Department of Psychological Medicine, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London

PAUL BEBBINGTON, PhD, FRCPsych

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London

TRAOLACH BRUGHA, PhD, MRCPsych

Department of Psychiatry, University of Leicester, Leicester

DINESH BHUGRA, PhD, FRCPsych and RACHEL JENKINS, FRCPsych

Institute of Psychiatry, London

MIKE FARRELL, MRCPsych

South London and Maudsley NHS Trust Addiction Resource Centre, London

GLYN LEWIS, PhD

Division of Psychiatry, University of Bristol, Bristol

NICOLA SINGLETON, MSc

Office for National Statistics, London

Correspondence: Professor Jeremy Coid, Forensic Psychiatry Research Unit, St Bartholomew's Hospital, William Harvey House, 61 Bartholomew Close, London ECIA 7BE, UK. Tel: 020 7601 8138; fax: 020 7601 7969; e-mail: J.W.Coid{at}qmul.ac.uk

Declaration of interest None.

Funded by the Department of Health.

{dagger} See part 2, pp. 481–487, this issue.

Background In England and Wales, persons of African—Caribbean origin are more likely to be both imprisoned and admitted to secure hospitals.

Aims To estimate population-based rates of imprisonment in different ethnic groups, and compare criminal behaviour and psychiatric morbidity.

Method We examined Home Office data on all persons in prison, and carried out a two-stage cross-sectional survey of 3142 remanded and sentenced, male and female, prisoners in all penal establishments in England and Wales in 1997.

Results We confirmed high rates of imprisonment for Black people and lower rates for South Asians. Different patterns of offending and lower prevalence of psychiatric morbidity were observed in Black prisoners.

Conclusions Despite increased risks of imprisonment, African—Caribbeans show less psychiatric morbidity than White prisoners. This contrasts with the excess of African—Caribbeans in secure hospitals, an inconsistency possibly in part due to the effects of ethnic groups on admission procedures.


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BJP 2002 181: 481-487. [Abstract] [Full Text]  



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