Acceso usuarios
Roberto Tejero Acevedo, Sara Fernández Guinea, María Pilar González Lozano
El presente artículo analiza la relación entre las demencias y la actividad delictiva. Se exponen las características diagnósticas del trastorno y algunos datos epidemiológicos y posibilidades de evaluación. Posteriormente se analizan sus repercusiones legales y forenses, mediante el análisis de la literatura especializada y del contenido de sentencias (31) dictadas por jueces y tribunales españoles. Se obtuvo un mayor número de sentencias donde los sujetos demenciados resultaron ser víctimas, los delitos sufridos fueron principalmente abusos (estafa, timos, hurtos), violencia y abandono. En cuanto a los demenciados como perpetradores de delitos, suelen cometerlos en las fases iniciales del trastorno (el llamado periodo médico-legal), donde los juzgadores suelen considerar parcialmente disminuida su imputabilidad, reduciendo las penas o aplicando medidas terapéuticas correspondientes. La tipología de los delitos cometidos es poco variada, siendo la mayoría de contenido sexual y delitos violentos.
This article analyzes the relation between dementias and criminal activity. The diagnostic characteristics of the disorder and some epidemiological data and assessment possibilities are reviewed. Subsequently, the legal and forensic consequences are analyzed by means of the analysis of the specialized literature and of the content of the sentences (31) handed down by Spanish judges and courts. A higher number of sentences was obtained when demented subjects were the victims, in which the offences committed were mainly abuse (swindles, tricks, theft), violence, and abandonment. When demented people were the perpetrators of offenses, they usually committed them in the initial phases of the disorder (the so-called medical-legal period), during which the judges habitually consider their imputability to be partially diminished, and hence the judges reduce the sentences or apply the corresponding therapeutic measures. The typology of the offenses committed was similar, with the majority being either of sexual content or violent offenses.
