Mental Illness And Crime Is Not Cause Crime And Violence

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.

Criminals are showcased on news and most commonly labeled as ‘mentally disturbed’. Although there is a strong correlation between individuals with mental illness committing a crime, it’s become a fundamental of social stigmatism. Victims of crime, teachers, friends and family. Anybody, and everybody’s immediate family may be affected. Because the world’s population has grown so much, at least one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders (Geneva, 2001). Because of how common it is, it’s nearly impossible not to be affected by

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

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

Gun Violence & Mental Health. For us to have full understanding of Gun violence and Mental Health, we need to delvea bit into their explanations. Gun violence is most common in poor urban areas and frequentlyassociated with gang violence, often involving male juveniles or young adult males. WhileMental Health is when a person is adjudicated as a mental defective and he is a danger topeople and himself or lacks the mental capacity to manage his own affairs or is found insane bythe authority in law court.Gun-rights advocates have mischaracterized the realities of how mental illnessinfluences gun violence. The National Rifle Association started referring to people with mentalillness as “monsters” after the Newtown tragedy.

The mentally ill is responsible for a portion of crimes committed with firearms, but it is debatable if we should hold them at the same standards of criminals. Gun control advocates state that people with mental illness are more likely are more likely to be victims of crimes rather than the perpetrators. “According to the National Institute of Mental Health, people with severe mental illness, like schizophrenia, are up to three times more likely to be violent, but ‘most people with [severe mental illness] are not violent and most violent acts are not committed by people with [severe mental illness.]’ On the whole, those with mental illness are responsible for only 5 percent of violent crimes. ‘People with mental illness are so much more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators that it's almost immeasurable,’ says Debbie Plotnick, the senior director of state policy at Mental Health America… According to one study, people with mental illness are 11 times more likely to be the victims of violence.” (Abby Rapport). This evidence shows that people who have mental illnesses are far more likely to be victims of crimes than the perpetrators by a large margin. Gun rights advocates believe that people use mental illness as an excuse to avoid intense prison time. “When defense mental health "experts" testify to a lack of a defendant's criminal intent, these "hired guns" are aiming to have the perpetrator confined to a psychiatric institution rather than a jail. In some cases, a murderer who is in prison for life without parole, as was the case early in 2008 for Maryland's Kevin Johns, can kill again with the hope of being found insane or not criminally responsible and, therefore, be taken out of horrible prison confines and placed in a different location for incarceration.

Many people see the mentally ill as crazed individuals that commit peculiar crimes that they don’t necessarily get punished for. That is not a completely inaccurate statement. Research has been going on for decades to try to see if there is in fact a link between the mentally impaired and violence. First physicians attempted to put together an archetype that would help them guess if the mentally ill patient in question was at a high risk to be violent. But that is all they were; merely guesses as to how likely a person was to commit violent acts. The first real studies done to correlate the mentally ill and their threshold of violence was done the 1970s. These tests showed that clinicians are twice as likely to be wrong as they are right when

It is often difficult to understand the decision making of people that lack the mental stability of average people. Many people may argue that mental illness has no relation to crime. Sherry Glied, and Richard G. Frank search for an explanation of violent acts and how they can be linked to some clues of psychological abnormalities. In the academic article, "Mental Illness and Violence: Lessons from the Evidence," Glied and Frank discuss the reason for which a person may become violent, whether it deals with mental health or has no relation at all. Meanwhile, Jeffrey H, Nathan, and others, conducted experiments regarding mental health problems and the seriousness of criminal issues. In, "Attribution and Serious Mental Illness: Understanding Multiple Perspectives and Ethno Cultural factors," these scholars focused on the idea that mental illness and violence are set off by other attributes, such as stress, anger and family problems. Both of these articles deal with the aspects of mental illness and the possible links to violence. In further discussion, readers will be able to understand the studies with different approaches, such as the type of audience they attract. Also, the scholars present evidence to prove the credibility of their studies.

Crimes linked to a mental disorder are seen to be abnormal from the established norms in society. According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, a mental illness is a condition that impacts a person 's thinking, feeling or mood and may affect their ability to relate to others and function on a daily basis.1 These variations often cause deviations from accepted behaviors. Behavior that is said to be not normal often ends up being linked to a crime.

For a considerable length of time, a standout amongst the most questionable themes in the lawful framework has been the mental illness. When somebody does a wrongdoing, he or she may utilize psychological instability as a defense. This is called Insanity defense. By attempting to utilize insanity defense, the claimed wrongdoer tries to get a reasonable trial. Society concurs with this rule. The issue is the place do we take a stand. Under what conditions is a man thought about crazy, and when they are not crazy. As they use mental illness as shields respondents from accepting full charges for their wrongdoing, as indicated by their psychological state at the time of their activities. However, because of this, it’s imperfect defense in which creates a loophole in our criminal justice system and that it must be

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

For many years genetics, inadequate parenting skills, and financial instability have all been a factor in the evolution of mental disorders. They have contributed to the lack of self-control that is required in order to fight off the urges to commit crimes. All around the world, millions of people suffer from mental disorders. “Mental illness impacts the lives of at least one in four adults and one in 10 children across the United States” Botzakis, S. (2014). Whether it be from antisocial personality, schizophrenia, or postpartum depression, they all seem to drive the individual to commit violent crimes. On the other hand, some acts of violence may very well be

As mentioned by Howitt (2015), a mental illness can be defined as ‘a variety of psychological conditions in which there is a characteristic disabling and distressing impairment in some aspect of the psychological functioning of the individual.’ However, not all mental illnesses are found to be at risk of violent offending. Such illnesses as anxiety and depression are found to be less violent than mental health problems such as bipolar and schizophrenia, both of which will be included in the subset of mental health problems recognised as violent for the purpose of this essay. The relationship that has been identified between mental illness and crime has the ability to be misconceived through misclassification of violent mentally ill offenders and a variety of factors which have the ability to cloud the evidence of the

Over the years there have been many researchers who conduct test to explain if there is any correlation between mental illness and crime. It is stated from Moore and Hiday (2006) that “twenty-two percent of all inmates have a mental illness, sometimes containing more mental illness patients than in most psychiatric units.” When reviewing these statistics it is clear as to how critical the correlation between different kinds of mental disorders and crime are. There are more detailed researches coming up to discuss that determines the correlation between mental illness and crime.

The investigations into violent crimes today are starting to reveal that one of the reason individuals are harming others is because they are mentally unstable and suffer from some sort of mental disability. The fact is “the proportion of Americans who describe mental illness in terms consistent with violent or dangerous behavior nearly doubled.” Also, the vast majority of Americans believe that persons with mental illnesses pose a threat for violence towards others and themselves (Pescosolido, 1999). There are many individuals with mental disabilities that tend to lash out on people, not because they want to, it is just a defense because they know they are not normal. Take people with turrets for example: They scream and hit because they get so frustrated because they can’t complete simple task like normal individuals like brushes their teeth without suffering a twitch so they get upset with themselves and hit things. A violent crime that has recently taken place in a Colorado Movie Theater shooting. The shooter himself suffered from a mental illness and it caused him to act out violently. Though it doesn’t give him the right to do what he did it shows how an unstable mind can cause