The relationship between schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and criminal behaviour is a central issue in forensic psychiatry. People with mental illness face some of the same types of criminogenic factors as people without mental illness, albeit more frequently. The research question of this study is the extent to which a framework of early and late offender typology can be empirically reconstructed in a forensic psychiatric population, and whether there are any practical implications. For N = 733 patients in six different forensic hospitals in Germany, the age at first psychiatric admission and the age at first registered offence were documented, as well as a number of other patient-related characteristics. Two clustering procedures were used to investigate whether forensic psychiatric patients could be classified according to these characteristics. A k-means cluster analysis using age at first psychiatric admission, age at first recorded offence, sociodemographic, clinical and criminological characteristics supported a 4-cluster solution. MANOVA analyses revealed further differences between the identified types. This study empirically confirms some of the sub-groups of the early and late starter typology described in the literature. In particular, the "early starters", "late starters" and "first presenters" were identified, but cluster four comprises individuals not previously described in the scientific literature. Each of these classes has group-specific characteristics that may have implications for forensic treatment, post-release aftercare, and the legal system.

中文翻译：

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法医精神病学中难以捉摸的案件？探索德国精神分裂症谱系障碍患者的亚组

精神分裂症谱系障碍（SSD）与犯罪行为之间的关系是法医精神病学的中心问题。患有精神疾病的人面临着一些与没有精神疾病的人相同类型的犯罪因素，尽管频率更高。本研究的研究问题是在法医精神病学人群中可以在多大程度上凭经验重建早期和晚期罪犯类型学框架，以及是否有任何实际意义。对于德国六家不同法医医院的 N = 733 名患者，记录了首次精神病入院的年龄和首次登记犯罪的年龄，以及许多其他与患者相关的特征。使用两个聚类程序来研究是否可以根据这些特征对法医精神病患者进行分类。使用首次精神病入院年龄、首次记录犯罪年龄、社会人口学、临床和犯罪学特征进行的 k 均值聚类分析支持 4 聚类解决方案。多元方差分析揭示了已识别类型之间的进一步差异。这项研究凭经验证实了文献中描述的早期和晚期启动类型的一些亚组。特别是，确定了“较早启动者”、“较晚启动者”和“首先提出者”，但第四组包括先前在科学文献中未描述的个体。每个类别都有特定群体的特征，可能对法医治疗、释放后善后护理和法律制度产生影响。