AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR

Volume 9 , pages 269-275

Book Reviews
Crimes of Violence by Mentally Abnormal Offenders: A Psychiatric and Epi-
demiological Study in the Federal German Republic, by H. Hafner and W.
Boker, translated by H. Marshall. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge,
1982, xvi + 384 pp, $39.50.

Crimes of Violence by Mentally Abnormal Oflenders reports a study of 533 people

detained as legally irresponsible in the Federal Republic of Germany between 1955
and 1964 after committing or attempting homicide. Hafner and Boker use these
individuals to answer several questions.
First, the 533 mentally abnormal violent offenders are compared with three groups:
normal offenders who have been convicted of violent crimes, mentally abnormal
psychiatric patients who are not offenders, and the general population. The variables
studied are sex, age, and psychiatric diagnosis.
Second, the rates of violence in the mentally abnormal and in the general popula-
tion are compared. Here, in contradistinction to the material printed on the cover of
the book, the rate of violence in schizophrenic persons is found to be high, while the
overall rate of violence in mentally abnormal people in general is found to be about
the same as in the general population.
Third, the 533 mentally abnormal violent offenders are compared with a matched
group of psychiatric patients on a variety of psychiatric variables. The overall
conclusions indicate an excess of criminality, alcoholism, and suicide in the family
histories and in the personal histories of the violent offenders and a high incidence of
paranoid delusions and increased tension in interpersonal relationships.
Fourth, the nature of the crimes committed by the 533 mentally abnormal violent
offenders is examined. The characteristics of the victims are described and the
motives of the offender are examined.
Fifth, and finally, the results are reviewed and a typology of mentally abnormal
violent offenders is proposed.
The comparison of the mentally abnormal violent offenders with other groups (the
first goal of the study) utilizes only simple variables, mainly age and sex. The study
of psychiatric diagnosis is methodologically unsound since the mentally abnormal
violent offenders were diagnosed by clinicians with full knowledge of the violent
crime. Psychiatrists have a tendency to label the majority of murderers as schizo-
phrenic because of the violent crime that they have committed, regardless of the
presence of other symptoms. A standardized psychiatric interview schedule with
“blind” review of the data would have been preferable.

0 1983 Alan R. Liss, Inc.

270 Book Reviews

The comparative rates of violent crime in the mentally abnormal and the normal
populations (the second goal of the study) is also methodologically poor. Hafner and
Boker describe their sample as “all mentally abnormal offenders who committed a
violent crime” in the period studied (p xiv). Gibbens, in his foreword, describes the
sample as those legally detained as irresponsible in the period. Since Hafner and
Boker did not screen all violent offenders in the time period and assess their degree
of mental abnormality, it would seem that Gibbens provides the more accurate
description of the sample. Thus, rates of violent crime are not calculated for the
mentally abnormal population of the FDR.
The psychiatric comparison of the mentally abnormal violent offenders and the
psychiatric patient control group (the third goal of the study) is perhaps the most
interesting part of the book. The two groups are compared on a wide variety of social,
demographic, and psychiatric variables, and many differences are reported. This part
of the study can provide a rich source of hypotheses for future study.
The final part of the work, the proposed typology of mentally abnormal violent
offenders, is based solely upon standard psychiatric diagnosis. Hafner and Boker
describe the schizophrenic offender, the mentally retarded offender, and so on.
The report of the study in a book form has perhaps minimized critical comment by
reviewers, which would have served to tighten the description and presentation of the
results of the study. The reading of the study is also made difficult by the typesetting
used by the publisher, especially since headings and subheadings are poorly laid out
visually.
However, the study provides data on a problem that has not yet been thoroughly
explored, and thus, it provides a useful and stimulating contribution to the literature.
Future studies can build on the results presented here and, perhaps, integrate them
into a theoretical perspective.

David Lester
Richard Stockton State College
Pomona, New Jersey

The Sexual Victimization of Children, by Mary de Young. McFarland and Co.:

Jefferson, NC, 1982, ix + 179 pp, $18.95.

Between 1976 and 1980, there was an explosion in the number of cases of child
sexual abuse coming to professional attention. For example, the American Humane
Association tally of officially reported cases of sexual abuse grew from 1,975 to
18,301 during that period. Most of this explosion was due to new media attention to
the problem, increased professional awareness, and improved efforts at case finding.
Whatever the reason, it was not surprising when the explosion of cases was followed
by an explosion of new literature on that subject.
One of the new books to appear, Mary de Young’s The Sexual Victimization of
Children, is an example of the kind of useful research that a conscientious clinician
can do without grant money or a large formal study. Her research is based on