BACKGROUND Developmental and index offence variables have been implicated strongly in later criminal behaviour and service pathways and this paper investigated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) which, with conduct disorder, has emerged from previous studies on offenders. ADHD and conduct disorder are over-represented among criminal populations when compared to the general populati...

This study is a test of the so-called subversion hypothesis, which posits that mentally disordered persons who commit minor offenses are prosecuted primarily for the purpose of imposing mental health treatment on them through evaluation and treatment for incompetency to stand trial. These persons, according to the subversion hypothesis, find themselves in the criminal process because they do no...

OBJECTIVE While psychopathology is common in criminal populations, knowing more about what kinds of psychiatric disorders precede criminal behavior could be helpful in delineating at-risk children. The authors determined rates of juvenile psychiatric disorders in a sample of young adult offenders and then tested which childhood disorders best predicted young adult criminal status. METHOD A re...

Using results from a large Norwegian follow-up study of former adolescent psychiatric in-patients we have traced the progression from mental disorders requiring hospitalisation in adolescence to registered criminal behaviour in adulthood, particularly highlighting gender differences. A nationwide representative sample of 1095 adolescent psychiatric inpatients (46% females) was followed up 15-33...

This article invites consideration of how Australia should regulate voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. It attempts to pose this question as neutrally as possible, acknowledging that both prohibition and legalisation of such conduct involve decisions about regulation. It begins by charting the wider field of law at the end of life, before considering the repeated, but ultimately unsucces...

Where criminal offences such as attempt and conspiracy require a defendant (D) to intend future conduct, D’s intention will always be conditional. D’s intention may be explicit ly conditional (eg, D intends to rob the shop, but only if unable to pay her rent), or implic it ly conditional (eg, D intends to rob the shop, but if asked, would not do so if she found it surrounded by police). Rather ...