The Link Between Mental Illness And Crime

During the 1700’s the jails were not only used to confine criminals, but they confined people with mental illness as well. People with mental illness were subjected to inhumane treatment, even when the individual was admitted

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.

Illness is one of the few experiences that all humans have in common and generally is met with empathy. However, people who suffer from mental illness are not privy to this treatment. For centuries, mental disorders have been demonized and stigmatized even in the modern era where humans have a much better understand of the mechanisms of the mind. Before the advent of psychiatry in the eighteenth-century people believed that mental illness was actually demonic possession resulting in the ostracization and murder of the mentally ill in the name of God. The Victorian era was met with a different view of mental illness, in that it was understood that it was a malady of the mind and people needed constant medical treatment, thus federally mandated asylums were created. Since mental illness was not understood there was a lot of misconceptions and fear surrounding the field. It is no surprise that the master of macabre and the creator of Horror, Edgar Allen Poe, decided to explore themes of mental illness in his stories. Poe’s most famous story about mental illness was The Fall of the House of Usher, where the main characters are plagued with an undisclosed mental malady. Through Poe’s use of point of view, style, tone, and tropes, he painted a perfect picture of the Victorian view of the mentally ill and the mind of the artist which was believed to be different faces of the same coin.

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..

During the 1800s, treating individuals with psychological issues was a problematic and disturbing issue. Society didn’t understand mental illness very well, so the mentally ill individuals were sent to asylums primarily to get them off the streets. Patients in asylums were usually subjected to conditions that today we would consider horrific and inhumane due to the lack of knowledge on mental illnesses.

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.

The first official mental asylum was built in the 1800’s for the treatment of the mentally ill. Illnesses such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and insanity were treated here. American asylums helped to provide a home for those whose minds differ from normal. In the institutions, patients could seek treatments. The invention of the asylums helped shape the world in early urbanization.

Because there are so few general histories on this subject, larger libraries should invest and purchase this work. Grob has published scholarly works on the treatment of mentally ill in the past but this account is highly readable and meant to target everyday readers. The book tracks the changing approaches in the treatment of the mentally ill in the U.S. psychiatry has basically transformed from dealing with asylums to now being a private-office practice. In the early history of this field, ``lunatics'' were primarily seen as a family or community responsibility, and those who had no one to take care of them were seen not as a medical issue but an economic or social one. Widows, orphans, and people who generally needed public assistance were housed in public almshouses.

For centuries societies have been superstitious and afraid towards mental illness; mainly due to a lack of knowledge. While there were “cures and treatments” for individuals that were deemed insane many were sent to either prisons or asylums. The conditions of these facilities were unsanitary, the physical and sexual abuse was frequent, and the staff was not properly trained to care for patients. Patients were also chained, caged, or restrained to beds in rooms that were often unheated.

Wright, D. (1997). Getting out of the asylum: understanding the confinement of the insane in the nineteenth century. Social History of Medicine, 10, 13

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

Insane asylums are hospitals that specialize in the treatment of serious mental disorders, such as clinical depression and schizophrenia. The treatment of mental illnesses dates to 5000 B.C.E, where illnesses were treated by trephining to release evil spirits. The treatment for the mentally ill was different depending on the culture and period. The first public mental asylum was established in the early 19th century in Britain after the passing of the 1808 County Asylums Act. The County Asylums Act was passed in the UK Parliament to establish places to care for people with mental health problems. Due to this act, each county in the UK was required to create asylums to house people judged to be mentally insane. Unfortunately, due to the social

Numerous studies and surveys have been conducted, and based on those surveys, many people think that mental illness and violence go hand in hand. I’m also a part of that percentage that agrees with mental illnesses being linked to violence. In the year of 2006, a national survey was conducted and it found that 60% of Americans thought that people with schizophrenia were likely to act violently toward someone else, while 32% thought that people with major depression were likely to do so. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects a person's ability to think, feel, and behave clearly, and can last for the rest of that individual’s life. It’s a condition