The impact of structured decision making on absconding by forensic psychiatric patients: results from an A-B design study

Table 4 Demographic, clinical and legal characteristics of absconders (N = 125)

	A Sept 1 2010 – Feb 29 2012 ( n = 58)		Interim Mar 1 2012 – Aug 31 2012 ( n = 28)		B Sept 1 2012 – Feb 28 2014 ( n = 39)
	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	F / KW_H
Age	40.52	11.35	44.14	14.23	38.03	10.09	2.32
Days under ORB	2246.19	2107.07	2286.89	1313.41	2372.38	1513.56	1.74
PCL-R total score	18.76	6.21	18.59	5.67	19.46	5.25	0.17
HCR-20 total score	26.13	4.65	26.23	4.68	27.50	4.77	1.03
	N	%	N	%	N	%	χ ²
Sex (male)	46	79.3	22	78.6	28	71.8	.80
Ethnicity
Caucasian	29	52.7	14	53.8	16	50.0	3.24
Afro-Caribbean	17	30.9	10	38.5	14	43.8
Asian	9	16.4	2	7.7	2	6.2
History of absconding (yes)	33	58.9	20	71.4	28	71.8	2.19
Prior absconding attempts (yes)	18	35.3	7	25.0	13	33.3	0.91
Diagnosis
Primary psychotic disorder	14	24.1	7	25.0	5	12.8	3.02
Comorbid psychosis + substance abuse	36	62.1	16	57.1	25	64.1	3.02
Personality disorder indicated (yes)	24	41.4	10	35.7	16	41.0	0.28
Index offense
Violent	38	65.5	20	71.4	27	69.2	0.88
Non-violent	11	19.0	4	14.3	5	12.8
Sexual	9	15.5	4	14.3	7	17.9

Note. ORB = Ontario Review Board; PCL-R = Psychopathy Checklist, Revised; HCR-20 = Historical, Clinical, Risk Management-20. Patients with more than one incident of absconding can fall into more than one time category.

ISSN: 1471-244X