中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: Criminal offenders in Taiwan with a mental illness that meets the requirements for an insanity defense can reduce or eliminate their criminal liability (a criminal sentence of fixed-term imprisonment, life imprisonment or death penalty), and instead be sentenced to custodial protection (involuntary admission to a mental facility for management of mental illness). The goal of this study is to identify factors that may correlate with the length of an individual's custodial protection sentence. Methods: Through a public judgment inquiry, we obtained the records for 243 court verdicts (from July 1, 2006 to May 1, 2019) for criminal offenders with mental illness. We extracted the data on the correlation among length of custodial protection, severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI), minor mental illness or intellectual disability, and the most severe sentence for the crime committed. Results: Our analysis showed a statistically significant positive correlation between the most severe sentence for the crime committed and the length of custodial protection (r = 0.185; p = 0.019). Next, we divided offenders into 3 groups: those with SPMI, minor mental disorders, and an intellectual disability group. We found no significant difference in the length of custodial protection among these 3 groups (p = 0.250). Conclusions: The study supports the hypothesis that the length of custodial protection correlates with the most severe sentence for the crime committed. However, the length of custodial protection should be first considered according to the different severity level of mental illness, namely whether the criminal offenders with mental illness are suffered from SPMI or not. When the social security issue is taken into account, other methods such as mental health literary should be promoted.