Mental Illness And Depression : How Conditions Beyond A Persons Control?

When we look at how fragile each one of our lives are, we need to take a minute and realize the different characteristics that form us into who we are today. Studies have shown that there are characteristics within the behavior of an individual that can be linked to the specific behaviors demonstrated by an offender that would classify them as a psychopath. Along with other research that looks into an individual’s genetics to see if that plays a role in defining or making a psychopath. John Allen Muhammad, also known as the D.C. sniper, was labeled as a psychopath when he terrorized D.C. for two weeks, taking thirteen victims and killing ten of them. This paper will go over the behaviors that constitute psychopathy, and the behaviors that

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.

Due to the complexity of the human brain there is an extreme difficulty in being able to scientifically discover all the facts about these disablements. The Atlantic interviewed Dr. Christine Montross, a psychiatrist at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island about defining Mental Illness. To summarize the interview the conclusion that Montross came too is that mental ailments are extremely delicate issues, there is difficulty in separating an actual problem from something such as temporary depression caused by the human condition. This difficulty in diagnosing creates confusion on treatment and the next steps required to prevent the patient from making poor choices. Due to this very troubling diagnosis many patients end up without care, or given substance to combat their mental state (Resse). A study conducted by Harvard medical school shows that people with ailments such as schizophrenia are over 50% more likely to commit a dangerous crime when addicted to a substance such as those prescribed to combat a vast majority of mental ailments (Harvard Medical School). The vast majority of those with these problems however do not seek help and are left to deal with their problems themselves, never seeking expert attention or help. These individuals that are more likely to commit crimes and specifically homicide most commonly have schizophrenia, psychopathy, brain damage, or

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.

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

The shutdown of state mental hospitals and lack of available financial and institutional resources force mentally ill people to the United States Judicial System for mental health. Every year thousands of people are arrested for various crimes and they are sent to jail. Sixteen percent of these people have some type of mental health problem (Public Broadcasting System , 2001). When we consider that the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million, this number is staggering (Anasseril E. Daniel, 2007). This is about 1% of the entire population of the United States. There are many reasons as to why the situation has taken such a bad turn and when the history of the treatment of mental illness is examined one can see how the situation developed into the inhumane disaster it is today.

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

The criminalization hypothesis implies that within the criminal justice system those who suffer from a serious mental illness are over represented because they are arrested and committed for actions caused by their untreated mental illness (Litschge &Vaughn, 2009). This implies that the environmental obstacles faced by the mentally ill directly lead to their arrest.

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.

There exists sufficient proof that justifies the criminal justice system has turned out to house those suffering from psychological problems. At some point it can be viewed as the best solution according to some people it still creates some dilemma within the society. If an individual is branded a criminal others suffering from the same problem are likely to suffer from psychological problems. Most of the psychological problems that have been currently under study have proven to be heritable and if exposed to certain environmental conditions, those with the inherited genes are most likely

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

Living with a mental illness can be hard, but it is even harder if there isn’t any access to the proper treatment needed in order to get better. It could result with the person committing a crime and ending up behind bars. The severity of a mental illness the may have ranges. Many people who suffer from one can be a danger to themselves or to those around them. It is up to a mental health professional or an officer to ensure that they receive the help that they need. In order to do so, they should place those with a mental illness in a mental health facility.

The biological theories are essential to the criminal justice profession so that they won't assume that a person's genetic characteristics cause a person to commit a crime. However, there are born criminals and “these types of criminals are the most dangerous, and can be identified through his or her stigmata or identifying characteristics” (Akers, Sellers, See, & Kieser, 2013, p. 10). Biological theories are the bases for severe criminal behavior mostly found among people who are born with an innate impulse to commit a

Researchers have also looked at criminal behavior from a genetic aspect. In fact, "behavioral genetic research has show that genes influence individual differences in a wide range of human behaviors -cognition, academic achievement, personality and temperament (including such traits as aggression and hostility), psychopathology, and even vocational interests and social attitudes" (Meadows, 2010, P.16). There may in fact be a connection between how an individual is wired and the behavior that results. This does not necessarily mean that some individuals are inevitably going to become a criminal. However, some individuals may simply have a greater tendency "to be more aggressive and thus less likely to control emotions absent some type of positive interventions" (Meadows, 2010, P. 16). Furthermore, genetic research looks at the heritability of certain disorders and specific genes that

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.