Dr.Limenhe, Asnake(MD, Forensic Psychiatrist )Dr.Haile, Tsegereda(MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry)Rediet Dribsa2022-04-062023-11-052022-04-062023-11-052022-02http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/31176Introduction: Forensic psychiatry operates at the interface of two disparate disciplines: Law and psychiatry. Forensic psychiatry is a subspecialty of psychiatry in which scientific and clinical expertise are applied to legal issues legal contexts Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital is one of the largest and oldest psychiatric hospital in Ethiopia; it is also the only hospital that gives inpatient forensic psychiatry service at this time. To our knowledge, the clinical & criminal justice characteristics of the 'insane' have never been a subject of study in Ethiopia. We are very hopeful that this study will be beneficial for the improvement of the forensic service training of mental health professionals and ultimately benefit those affected by the limitations of information and scarcity of research to pinpoint issues we can work on to better the care provided to forensic psychiatry patients. Objective: To describe cases and explain the reason for their acquittal due to being "criminally irresponsible" in the forensic inpatient service at Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital in a span of 6.5 years (between 01/01/2015 and 08/01/ 2021 GC). Methods: A retrospective facility-based study was conducted in Amanuel mental specialized hospital for a study period of 6.5 years from January 2015-August 2021. Forensic reports were used as a source of data, a data extraction sheet was used to collect data, and SPSS version 24 was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics are displayed in text, tables, and figures. Variables that showed association with the outcome variable using binary logistic regression were subjected to multivariate logistic regression. Statistical significance was declared at p-value < 0.05. Result: A total of 205 forensic reports of defendants were identified in the study period. Of this, 15 (7.3 %) cases did not have a conclusive forensic opinion regarding criminal responsibility; these cases were excluded from the analysis. The mean age of the defendants was 33.13 years with a standard deviation of 10.6 years. This study also showed that the magnitude of insane defendants among patients who had forensic mental health assessment at Amanuel mental health specialized hospital was found to be 39.5 %. The study revealed from the cases who have neuropsychiatric diagnoses 62.2 % were found to be "criminally irresponsible." Conclusion & recommendation: The number of insane defendants among patients who had forensic mental health assessment at Amanuel mental health specialized hospital was relatively high. Factors that had an association with insane defendants include psychiatric diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorder, bipolar І disorder, and disordered psychiatric condition during the time of assessment. Creating awareness about severe mental illness and early detection and initiation of treatment may contribute to the prevention of the offenses as a society and improve the quality of life for the clients.en-USForensic psychiatry,Psychiatry,LawThesis