The utility of outpatient commitment: Reduced-risks of victimization and crime perpetration.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Outpatient civil commitment (OCC) provisions, community treatment orders (CTOs) in Australia and Commonwealth nations, are part of mental health law worldwide. This study considers whether and by what means OCC provides statutorily required "needed-treatment" addressing two aspects of its legal mandate to protect the safety of self (exclusive of deliberate-self-harm) and others.

Method

Over a 12.4-year period, records of hospitalized-psychiatric-patients, 11,424 with CTO-assignment and 16,161 without CTO-assignment were linked to police-records. Imminent-safety-threats included perpetrations and victimizations by homicides, rapes, assaults/abductions, and robberies. "Need for treatment" determinations were validated independently by Health of the Nations Scale (Ho

SUBMITTER: Segal SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7202380 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature