Mental Disorders And Criminal Behavior

Mental Illness has been prevalent all throughout our history from Isaac Newton to Abraham Lincoln to Sylvia Plath and so on. These illnesses can be as minor as a slight bipolar disorder or as severe as schizophrenia. In recent years, mental illnesses are becoming more prevalent in our criminal justice systems than anywhere else. Mental illness is becoming an association with crime and based on the information that has been found, this paper will attempt to further define the problem of mental illness within our criminal justice system and offer alternatives or insights as to how to possibly help with this problem.

Authors in this article from the University of California observe and focus on the risks and rates involved in people that have a mental disorder and correlate it with incarceration as well as people with re-incarceration. While performing these studies researchers found an alarming number of people incarcerated had a severe mental illness and substance abuse issues. Much of the knowledge in numbers of people with a mental illness are brought from a correctional view, but researchers here try to also focus on numbers of people in the public mental health system as well.

In this society there are many people who suffer from mental illness and others who are deviants. Although many confuse mental illness with deviance they are both very different things that can be related with each other due to the fact that having a mental illness is not normal and being deviant is also not normal. There are many criminals who would be considered deviants. Several theories of deviance seem to describe these types of people. There is the control, differential-association, labeling, psychological and strain theories that may determine why criminals chose to act in deviant ways. Serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy fall into some of the theories of deviance. The theories John Wayne Gacy falls into are the control theory

Mental health and the criminal justice system have long been intertwined. Analyzing and understanding the links between these two subjects demands for a person to go in to depth in the fields of criminology, sociology, psychology, and psychiatry, because there are many points of view on whether or not a person’s criminal behavior is due to their mental health. Some believe that an unstable mental state of mind can highly influence a person’s decision of committing criminal actions. Others believe that mental health and crime are not related and that linking them together is a form of discrimination because it insinuates that those in our society that suffer from poor mental health are most likely to become a criminal due to their

This essay will look at the public understanding of the nature of mental disorder and to what extent it is associated with dangerousness and violence. The essay will begin by exploring the public’s perspectives and opinions on the matter and the impact that the mentally ill have on crime rates. Specific social perspectives will also be explored..

An unfortunate reality in today’s society is the gross overrepresentation of persons with mental illness in the criminal justice system. According to Teplin (1984), persons with mental illness have been found to be almost twice as likely as individuals without any known mental illness to be arrested for their behavior in similar situations. Furthermore, several other studies have even shown that roughly half of all persons with a mental illness have been arrested at least once in their lifetime (Solomon & Draine, 1995; Walsh & Bricourt, 2003). Although these statistics seem to further support the common belief among many citizens that mentally ill persons are dangerous criminals, research indicates that the mentally ill are more often arrested for nonviolent minor charges (Cuellar, Snowden, & Ewing, 2007). Not surprisingly, a considerable portion of individuals within the criminal justice population have a diagnosable mental illness. According to Ditton (1999), 7% of federal inmates, 16% of state inmates, and 16% of jail inmates have a mental illness. These percentages may be inflated because persons with mental illness tend to spend longer periods of time in custody than those without a mental illness. Perhaps the greatest indication of the brokenness of the system is the fact that there are more mentally ill persons in jails and prisons today than in public psychiatric hospitals (Lamb& Bachrach, 2001). In fact, according to the

Another theme which ties a link between mental illness and crime is vulnerability. After speaking with a few officers, vulnerability and low state of mind was an occurring issue which influenced people to commit crimes. Sgt Haworth went on to describe his own interpretation of what mental illness is through his own experiences.

A small group of people with mental illness (those with severe and untreated symptoms of schizophrenia with Psychosis, major depression or bi-polar mood disorder) may have an increased rate of violence. In this group, Individuals who are suffering from psychotic symptoms that cause them to feel threatened or manipulated by Outside forces have a greater tendency towards violent behaviour. In spite of this, with early assessment and Appropriate treatment, individuals with severe illness are no more dangerous than the general population. Community treatment programs have also been found to be helpful in the management of behaviours that lead to crime.

“What is more likely is that there is a correlation between mental illness and crime, whereby an individual suffers from mental heath issues and has other factors that are occurring at the same time (ex. substance abuse and Bir-polar disorder)” (Eyjolfson, personal communication, June 13, 2018). “Comorbidity is very common and often very difficult to treat given limited resources, training and time” (Eyjolfson, personal communication, June 13,

Research has found that individuals who commit serious violent crimes usually suffer from some sort of mental disturbance. People who have been arrested for multiple crimes usually suffer from a psychiatric disorder, particularly a psychotic disorder. The mentally ill are more likely to experience repeated arrests/incarcerations if they do not get the treatment needed. Research has shown that people who suffer from severe mental illness/disorders are usually more antisocial than others and therefore punishment is not as effective in reducing their criminal offending (Siegel, 2011).

In this journal talks about the population of mentally ill population in our correctional environment. Then he states what is the most common mental illness. Coupled with what is the profile of mentally ill prisoners. Finally, he talks about the mentally ill treatment

Over the past few decades, many researches have strived to test and explain the correlation between violence and crime and mental illness. Moore and Hiday (2006) assert that up 22% of inmates has a mental illness, sometimes containing more mental illness patients than many psychiatric units. Due to these statistics it is evident how important it is to understand the causes of the correlations between crime and violence and mental disorders. This proposal wishes to explain and understand the possible correlation and the reasons for such correlation between mental health illnesses and violence and crime. Further research to test

The conclusion of the case study was that three components were evaluated to detect the direct the link between criminal offenders and mental illness which are direct link between crimes and mental illness, the difference in scores on the client continuum among offenders, and percentage of people with one direct crime. Twenty-seven were in middle of the continuum. It was 23 percent of the offenders that was schizophrenia. Some of the crimes that were committed by schizophrenia were 42 percent against other people, property crimes, and minor trespassing crimes. Bipolar disorders offenders committed 39 percent crimes against 19 percent were minor crimes.

The relationship between those who suffer from personality disorders and violent criminal activity are recurrent. For years

In recent years, there has been a higher prevalence of articles in the media in relation to mental illness and crime. This is due to a higher focus of research in the past half-century by criminal psychologists into the relationship between mental illness and violence. A conclusion has then come of this research that people with mental health problems are at increased risk of violent offending. This is determined through classification and misclassification of mental illness and clinical aspects of violence. However, there are also seen to be additional factors and trends that impact a person with mental illness’s likelihood of becoming a violent offender.