Gaziantep Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Psikiyatri AD, Gaziantep, Türkiye

Objective: There are few studies evaluating the relationship between the crime and psychiatric diagnosis of the forensic cases, referred to psychiatry outpatient units in our country. In this research, diagnostic distributions, sociodemographic characteristics of civil law and criminal law cases, referred via courts to our clinic and relations of crime type are aimed to be evaluated. Method: Between 1 January 2004 - 31 December 2006, 314 cases' medical files and reports, having been referred via the courts to our hospital, were evaluated retrospectively. Diagnosis that were made according to the criteria of DSM IV are classified and the other sociodemographic data are evaluated statistically via SPSS 10.0 program. Results: Of 314 cases, the mean of age was 36.89±15.85, %74.2' (n=233) were male and % 25.8 (n=81) were female. %52.2 (n=164) were civil law and %47.8 (n=150) were criminal law cases. Of the cases, %35.4 (n=111) were sent in order to be evaluated whether they were substance dependant or not, %14.3 (n=45) were sent to us in order to be examined according to T.C.L item 32 whether they had criminal liability or not. Conclusion: While 100 cases were referred to our clinic via courts in 2001, the number of cases increased in between 2004-2006, reaching up to 314 with an increase of civil law cases as well. The relationship between psychiatric disorder and crime is an important issue which needs to be investigated for both social, economical and medical problems which it causes and for interventions in order to prevent. The research on this topic has not received much attention in Turkey, although there are numerous studies in developed countries.