Purpose

Official criminal justice statistics (e.g. arrest rates) underestimate the frequency of crime because not all crime gets reported to authorities, a phenomenon known as the “dark figure of crime.” The present study aims to examine the dark figure of violence committed by discharged psychiatric patients.

Design/methodology/approach

Multiple reporting modalities permitted a direct comparison between patients whose violence was officially detected to those whose violence was self-reported but not officially detected, along with differences in the nature of violent acts.

Findings

Only 5% of violent individuals were officially detected, 26% of violent individuals were both officially detected and self-reported their violent behavior, while 68% of violent individuals self-reported their violent behavior and were not officially detected. The type of violent acts did not vary as a function of whether they were officially detected or self-reported. However, differences were observed for the location of violence, the relationship to the victim and whether an injury resulted. Older individuals, those with prior arrests and those with higher psychopathy scores are some of the factors associated with an increased likelihood of officially detected violence.

Research limitations/implications

The data were collected from three sites in the USA. Generalizing the specific findings to other locations and countries ought to be done cautiously.

Practical implications

Studies ought to include multiple methods to measure violence. Self-report seems to be especially important to the extent one is concerned with measuring actual violence rather than violence that gets detected by legal authorities.

Originality/value

This study highlights an important limitation of relying exclusively on official criminal justice statistics when studying violence or recidivism in the community.

中文翻译：

---

出院精神科住院病人所犯下的暴力黑暗形象

目的

官方刑事司法统计数据（例如逮捕率）低估了犯罪的频率，因为并非所有的犯罪都会报告给当局，这种现象被称为“犯罪的黑暗数字”。本研究旨在调查出院的精神病患者所犯下的暴力行为的黑暗形象。

设计/方法/方法

多种报告方式允许直接比较正式发现暴力行为的患者与自我报告但未正式发现暴力行为的患者，以及暴力行为性质的差异。

发现

只有 5% 的暴力个体被官方发现，26% 的暴力个体被官方发现并自我报告了他们的暴力行为，而 68% 的暴力个体自我报告了他们的暴力行为并且没有被官方发现。暴力行为的类型不因是官方发现还是自我报告而有所不同。然而，在暴力发生的地点、与受害者的关系以及是否造成伤害方面存在差异。老年人、先前被捕的人和精神病评分较高的人是与官方发现的暴力可能性增加相关的一些因素。

研究限制/影响

这些数据是从美国的三个地点收集的。应谨慎地将具体调查结果推广到其他地点和国家。

实际影响

研究应该包括衡量暴力的多种方法。自我报告似乎特别重要，因为人们关注的是衡量实际暴力而不是法律当局发现的暴力。

原创性/价值

本研究强调了在研究社区中的暴力或累犯时完全依赖官方刑事司法统计数据的一个重要限制。