A Comparison of the Behaviour Problems presented by Male and Female Subnormal Offenders

In the admission sampling period it was remarked that there had been a reduction in the number of Severely Subnormal patients admitted to Rampton of late. There was a corresponding increase in the number of females classified as suffering from Mental Illness, and of males classified as Psychopathic Disorder. It was also found that the problems presented on admission by males and females were quite different, indicating that a similar type of regime might not be advisable for both. The males were more intelligent, showed a lower incidence of psychosis and brain damage, and were admitted from prison or court rather than from other hospitals. Pre-admission misconduct of women involved violent temper tantrums directed against staff and patients. The men displayed a much greater variety of antisocial behaviour. Murder and sexual crimes were exclusively male offences. Breaking and entering was also mainly a male pursuit. 42 per cent. of the men and 56 per cent. of the women had previous histories of brain abnormalities or brain injury. This contrast in the nature of the behaviour disorders was found to persist in a survey of matched patients, resident in Rampton for some years. The females continued to show frequent emotional outbursts of aggression directed indiscriminately at staff, patients, hospital property and against their own bodies. They also revealed more distinct psychiatric syndromes than the males, largely of a hysteroid/ depressoid kind. The males were less obviously mentally disturbed and the problems they created were mostly connected with assaults upon other male patients, which were of murderous intensity when they did occur. They appeared to adapt to the hospital regime better than the females. It is hypothesized that the women might have a stronger primary drive level of anger than the men, accompanied by lower frustration thresholds. An apt theoretical model to explain male aggression is considered to be the triggering of a reaction by summation of primary drives; perhaps occurring in a situation which also presents conditioned stimuli evocative of a habitually aggressive response set.