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A Follow-Up Study of Criminal Psychopaths

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

T. C. N. Gibbens
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals
D. A. Pond
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals
D. Stafford-Clark
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals

Extract

One of the most important questions in dealing with psychopaths is the prognosis. In 1948 two of us made a study (Stafford-Clark, Pond, Lovett-Doust, 1951) of a number of criminal psychopaths and a control group of ordinary criminals in prison by clinical and EEG methods, with the object of revealing the characteristics which most significantly distinguished psychopaths from others, and which were, therefore, most crucial in diagnosis. The psychopaths were carefully chosen in collaboration with two experienced prison medical officers. The later criminal behaviour of these psychopaths and controls is equally interesting, however, if we are to understand what the diagnosis implies (Gibbens, 1951). The third author (T.C.N.G.) has therefore been conducting a continuous follow-up, with the collaboration of the Prison Commission and Criminal Records Office. The results of the first follow-up, from 1948–1953, have been published (Gibbens, Pond and Stafford-Clark, 1955), and were reproduced in the transactions of the Royal Commission on the Law relating to Mental Illness (1957). The present paper deals with a further period of study, so that the follow-up is now from 1948-June, 1957.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1959 

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References

Appendix to Minutes of Evidence given to the Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency, 1957, p. 1320. H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
Clark, D. Stafford, -, Pond, D. A., and Doust, , Lovett-, J. W., Brit. J. Deling., 1951, 2, 117.Google Scholar
Gibbens, T. C. N., “Recent trends in the management of psychopathic offenders”, Brit. J. Deling., 1951, 2, 103.Google Scholar
Idem, Pond, D. A., and Clark, , Stafford-, D., “A follow-up study of criminal psychopaths”, ibid., September, 1955.Google Scholar
Mannheim, H., and Wilkins, L. T., Prediction Methods in Relation to Borstal Training. 1956. H.M.S.O. Google Scholar
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