Originally published in German in 1973, and first published in English as this Cambridge edition in 1982, this is a detailed and systematic account of the extent to which mentally abnormal offenders are likely to commit crimes of major violence, based upon a study of all the 533 men and women in the Federal German Republic from 1955 to 1964 who were detained in hospitals after committing homicide or near-homicide. The authors calculated that such patients are no more, but also no less, dangerous than the rest of the population, and that the policy of treating psychotic or seriously subnormal patients in the community does not expose the public to risk. The book makes important suggestions for the prevention of such disasters by describing the diagnoses, special symptoms and social situations which involve a special risk, especially to close relatives and those with whom the patient is emotionally involved.
