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An Electroencephalographic and Psychiatric Study of Thirty-two Insane Murderers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Z. A. Sayed ,
S. A. Lewis  and
R. P. Brittain
Z. A. Sayed
Affiliation:
Winwick Hospital, Warrington
S. A. Lewis
Affiliation:
University Dept. of Psychiatry (Royal Edinburgh Hospital), Edinburgh
R. P. Brittain
Affiliation:
Glasgow, formerly Physician Superintendent, State Hospital, Carstairs
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Extract

There are only four studies which deal exclusively with the electroencephalographic investigation of murderers (Stafford-Clark and Taylor, 1949; Hill and Pond, 1952; Mundy-Castle, 1955; Winkler and Kove, 1962). In several other reports, murderers are included as a sub-group of a population described as psychopaths and criminal offenders (e.g. Silverman, 1943, 1944). The general finding of these studies was that the murderer population had an incidence of EEG abnormality far above that found in non-criminal, non-psychiatrically ill subjects. However, the range of incidence of abnormality was large, being from around 20 per cent to 80 per cent. Despite the complex psychopathology commonly leading to an act of murder, it has been not uncommon to conclude, from the finding that the populations studied had a high incidence of epilepsy, that there was some association between epilepsy and murder. Alström (1950), however, in a study of 897 epileptics, found that no patient had committed a crime during psychomotor seizure. The Jack Ruby Trial in America highlighted the assumed association and Livingston (1964) summarized the true situation: ‘… an epileptic might kill, not because he has epilepsy, but because he is a human being …’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 115 , Issue 527 , October 1969 , pp. 1115 - 1124
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1969 

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References

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