Explaining the increased arrest rate among mental patients: the changing clientele of state hospitals.

The arrest rates of nearly 2,000 psychiatric patients released from psychiatric centers in 1968 and those of nearly 2,000 patients released in 1975 were compared with the arrest rates of a group of 5,000 patients studied 25 years earlier. In general, arrest rates among the two recent samples were considerably higher than general population rates, primarily because of the large proportion of patients previously arrested. Other characteristics related to subsequent arrest were age and admitting diagnosis. One additional finding was that the number of patients with prior arrests had increased markedly over the years.