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Knife attacks: what psychiatric follow-up for the attackers?
Knife attacks: what psychiatric follow-up for the attackers? – (France 2)
On June 20, 2023, a knife attack in Annecy left six seriously injured, including four young children. The mute assailant found himself unable to explain his action. This attack, as well as the one which took place at the Gare de Lyon this Saturday, raises the following question: when does an accused escape a trial for psychiatric disorders?
The case left its mark in June 2023: a man attacked four children and two adults with a knife in Annecy. Suffering from mental disorders, he has since been interned in a medical psychiatric unit. Was he responsible for his actions? Medical assessments are still underway to determine this, because there are very specific criteria for escaping a trial.
No trial or prison
“The suspect must suffer from a psychiatric disorder, but also that at the time of the facts, this psychiatric disorder has completely abolished discernment”, explains Laurent Layet, psychiatrist and former head of the UMD Montfavet center. Once declared irresponsible, these men and women are completely removed from the legal process. No trial or prison. In most cases, they are sent to a facility called a “difficult patient unit”. There are ten on French soil for nearly 530 patients. Journalist Alexandre Kauffman, who worked for two years on the subject, states: “It’s a very, very tight regime of monitoring of movements, much narrower than in a closed psychiatric regime, when you go there you don’t know at all how long you stay there, you can stay there for a year, forty years. , or never come out.“Each year, less than 0.5% of perpetrators of criminal offenses are declared irresponsible in France.
