[Recidivism of Discharged Forensic Patient (§ 63 StGB) Differentiated According to Diagnosis Groups]

The aim of the study is the descriptive evaluation of the recidivism trajectories of 321 discharged patients sentenced to forensic treatment acc. to art 63 of the German penal code. The data were taken from the Essen prospective long-term study. Reoffending was aggregated in periods of three years. In the course of the average 16.5-year follow-up period ("time-at-risk"), about one third reoffended (35.2 %). Differentiated by main diagnoses, discharged patients with personality disorders in particular had high overall recidivism rates (57.8 %). For patients discharged for reasons of proportionality (n = 8; 2.5 %), recidivism occurred in 4 cases and serious offending in 3 cases. The results underscore the effectiveness of forensic psychiatric and highlight the need for additional consideration regarding appropriate treatment measures and outpatient follow-up care for personality disordered offenders.