Psychiatric aspects of murder and attempted murder.

The clinical data and forensic aspects of 28 individuals charged with murder and 10 charged with attempted murder examined over the last 35 years are recorded. The majority of those aged 40 years or over were criminally insane. A positive family history of psychiatric illness was present in the majority of the criminally insane group. Murder and attempted murder in the setting of a stable marriage was almost invariably the result of serious psychiatric illness. After the clearcut cases of schizophrenia and depressive illness were separated there were left a mixed paranoid group and a large group of individuals with severe personality disorders. Of the forensic aspects a case is made for the wider use of "unfitness to plead" in the severely psychotic. The follow-up of cases strongly suggested that those found not guilty on psychiatric grounds were likely to be held for longer periods than those treated as criminals. The author suggests that the public would be better protected if the Crown sought an insanity verdict in some cases rather than oppose it.