Cet article, de nature essentiellement descriptive, interroge les caractéristiques sociodémographiques, cliniques et criminologiques d’une population de 210 meurtriers examinés par deux experts psychiatres angevins pendant une période de 30 ans. Les meurtriers de notre série sont majoritairement des hommes (73 %) d’âge jeune, 33 ans en moyenne, sans emploi (51 %), vivant seuls au moment des faits (49 %). Ils ont des antécédents psychiatriques dans deux tiers des cas et des antécédents judiciaires dans plus d’un tiers des cas. Cinquante pour cent des agresseurs ont vécu un événement de vie significatif dans leur enfance : décès d’un parent, placement en foyer, maltraitance physique ou sexuelle. Les antécédents familiaux sont marqués par l’éthylisme paternel et le suicide. Moins d’un cinquième des homicidaires présente une pathologie mentale grave (schizophrénie n=14, délire paranoïaque n=8, trouble de l’humeur n=15), un dixième souffre d’une pathologie mentale « organique » (débilité mentale n=11, démence n=5, tableau neurologique n=5) et plus d’un tiers a un diagnostic de trouble de la personnalité (n=44) ou d’abus ou de dépendance à l’alcool (n=35). Un tiers des meurtriers de cette série est indemne de trouble psychiatrique (n=73). Le meurtre, associé à un délit dans 20 % des cas, est commis préférentiellement le soir (59 %), au domicile de la victime (70 %), au moyen d’une arme à feu (36 %), d’une arme blanche (21 %) ou par strangulation (9,6 %) dans un contexte d’alcoolisation (50 %), de dispute (49 %) et d’altercation physique (28 %), ou plus rarement dans un moment délirant (14 % des cas). La victime est connue (83 %). L’irresponsabilité pénale est prononcée pour un cinquième des meurtriers.

After a saturated media coverage of some murders, questions were raised about the mentally ill and their dangerous and violent nature which may sometimes culminate in homicide. The popular idea that someone who kills an unknown person in the street is mentally ill is firmly rooted in the collective consciousness. Yet, epidemiological data are reassuring: only 15% of such murders are committed by the seriously mentally ill (schizophrenia, paranoia, melancholia).

To describe the sociodemographic, clinical and forensic characteristics of a convicted population of 210 murderers.

Consecutive series of cases of people convicted of murder in Angers between 1975 and 2005. Information on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of perpetrators of homicide was collected from psychiatric reports prepared for the courts. This retrospective study identifies several types of pathological murders (schizophrenia, paranoiac delirious disorder, affective disorder: melancholia and hypomania, drugs abuses, personality disorders).

The murderers were men whose mean age was 33. Most were single, living alone and jobless. Two thirds of them had psychiatric records and one third a record of violence against persons. There were 14 cases of schizophrenia (6.7%), eight cases of persistent delusional disorder, 15 cases of affective disorder, 11 cases of mental disorder, five cases of neurological symptomatology, 44 cases of personality disorder and 35 cases of alcohol abuse or alcohol dependency disorder. A third of the murderers did not have any kind of mental disorder (n=73). Fifty-two (24%) were mentally ill. Two thirds had a history of mental illness and one third had a record of previous convictions of violence. Crimes were mostly committed at nighttime and in the house of the victim. The most common method of killing was stabbing. Fourteen percent had symptoms of mental illness at the time of the offence. The 217 victims were, in decreasing order, a family member, a current or former spouse/partner (53%), an acquaintance (30%) or a stranger (17%). The forensic and juridical consequences (via the application of former article 64 or the present article 122-1 of the French Criminal Code) were envisaged in less than 10% of the cases.

These data allowed the authors to determine the general risk factors of homicidal violence (male gender, youth and alcohol abuse) as well as some more specific factors (mental illness, comorbidities…). The dynamic characteristics of the meeting of the crime protagonists should be added to these factors.