Insanity Proceedings and Black-White State Hospital Admission Rate Differences

THIS study attempted to determine if the higher state hospital admission rates of blacks are due to greater proportions of blacks being adjudicated incompetent at county insanity hearings. The records of 2,264 cases from 12 Florida counties in 1969 and observations and interviews in the county courts were used to answer this question. With the exception of a slight difference in middle-sized counties, the higher rates of state hospital admission were found to be due to initial differences in petitioning to the court rather than to adjudication differences. The lack of difference is due to the fact that the proportion competent, when refined, proves to be very small for both blacks and whites, thus allowing for little variation by ethnicity. The operation of a racial stereotype was, however, demonstrated in a detailed analysis of one large county. The literature on state mental hospital admissions is replete with examples of higher rates for blacks when comparisons are made with whites (see, for example, 6, 8, 1). In fact, a recent review of such work concluded that blacks are often overrepresented at admission by ratios as high as 2: 1 (3). There has been little research, however, on the structural factors responsible for this pattern. This study asks if these differences occur because blacks are more likey than whites to be declared incompetent at county insanity hearings.