Transtornos mentais na criminalidade: análise quantitativa do sistema carcerário e de custódia no Brasil, prevalência de doenças psiquiátricas e perfil destas populações

Abstract

This study aimed to characterize the relation between mental disorders and criminality, considering the high crime rates that strike Brazilian society and rank the country among the most violent in the world. Objectives. To quantitatively analyze the custody and prison system in Brazil, especially the Psychiatric Treatment and Custody Hospital (HCTP) of Franco da Rocha, whose populations’ profile is herein described, as well as the characteristics of public policies to reintegrate mentally-ill imprisonments into society. Methodology. This study was based on scientific methods of quantitative-descriptive nature, primary and secondary data, bibliographical review, document analysis and statistical treatment of data. Results. We have found that the crime phenomenon occurs regardless some disorders issues, which differs from how the common sense of Brazilian society judges this subject. Currently on the 21st century the thought that criminals have some sort of mental disorder still prevails, due to the influence of the legal positivist schools in Brazilian society, which no longer apply Lombrosian theories. The statistics in this research demonstrated that the percentage of imprisonments with no mental disorder is 99.59% (607,731 people) while mentally-ill imprisonments are 0.41% (2,500) in the analyzed time frame (the year of 2015). The way these populations are treated is also different; recidivism among the prison population can reach up to 80%, while it is 59% among those with mental disorders. This is because the difference between a prisoner and a patient, at first, is determined by the medical treatment and medicine administered, and, later on, by the work of the Support Centers (Centros de Apoio) for them. Conclusions. The problems of social, economic, educational and political nature, as well as prison and welfare issues are those that directly impact criminality, rather than the possible disorders that one person may develop; thus, mental disorders are far from being the determining factors of criminality in Brazilian society. About public policies and their effectiveness for alternative treatments in mental hearth to reintegrate mentally-ill imprisonments into society, there have been important advances (Law 10.216 of 2001, the expansion of Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS), the creation of the National Program for the Assessment of Healthcare Services (Programa Nacional de Avaliação dos Serviços de Saúde), and the Mental Health Handling Protocol (Protocolo de Manejo em Saúde Mental) in 2014, even though these are not enough. In addition, there have been setbacks, such as substantial budgetary cuts for that sector. We believe that only through systematic studies on this theme, it is possible to improve positive effective actions for mental health in Brazil, since bringing up the discussion about this problem will prevent it from being forgotten by the competent authorities.