Cura o custodia? Gli atti aggressivi dell’infermo di mente tra antiche problematiche e rinnovate esigenze

[Autom. eng. transl.] The contribution aims to analyze the topic of attacks on psychiatric doctors, observing the figure of the psychiatrist in his capacity as victim and not as perpetrator. The topic has hit the headlines again, following the multiple attacks perpetrated against psychiatrists and healthcare workers in mental health departments. These events led, as always happens, to the reaction of the political world, which, in the wake of the so-called "spot" criminal law, has formulated a reform proposal aimed at reducing the scope of operation of the cause of non-imputability due to mental infirmity, pursuant to articles. 88-89 criminal code Furthermore, there is no shortage of requests for reform from the category of psychiatric doctors, who hope for a reform of the current legislation regarding compulsory health treatments. After an overview of the statistical data that testifies to the worsening of the problem, the contribution analyzes in its essential lines the method of response to the criminal offense committed by the non-attributable offender, with a necessary reference to the non-attributability that occurred during detention . The analysis therefore focuses on the institution of REMS and its critical issues, stigmatized among other things by the Constitutional Court no. 22/2022, and on the doctrine which, on the basis of these critical issues, calls for a prompt reform. The contribution then concludes with a reflection on the methods of preventing crimes by perpetrators suffering from mental illness. It clearly emerges from the literature that attention must be paid not only to the patient's personal and pathological characteristics, but above all to the operator's behaviour, dialogue and confrontation methods with the latter, key profiles, moreover, of the law. 219/2017, putting the relationship with the patient at the centre, even and above all when he is suffering from psychiatric pathologies, as the only viaticum to guarantee both the protection of his health and the possibility of his effective reintegration into society.