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It is well known that many people who have been charged with criminal behaviors have mental disorders. To determine the likelihood that people who died by suicide had a history of criminal charges, researchers used Danish national databases to compare 27,219 people who committed suicide in 1981–2006 with 524,899 sex- and age-matched controls who were alive on the day that the probands died.
Criminal charges included sexual crimes, violence (from homicide to violent threats), property crimes, and traffic offenses. Outcomes were also examined (e.g., imprisonment, suspended sentence, fines, dropped charges, psychiatric treatment, acquittal). Of those who died by suicide, 35% of men and 13% of women had criminal justice histories.
Compared with h…