Archetype Of Mentally Ill

In America today, mental illness as it relates to violence and crime is highly debated as to whether or not it plays a factor in crimes. Even though

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..

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

While most people are concerned and want violent offenders punished and thrown in prison (which is a valid concern), it is rare that violent acts are committed by the mentally ill. For those crimes the mentally ill commits, prison may not always be the right answer; instead, proper treatment and rehabilitation would be much better. In general, the statement has always been made that the

I learned a lot on the topic of mass shootings as well as the mentally ill. I do not believe that mentally ill individuals should be used as a scapegoat when crimes of violence occur. However, I do believe that some mass shootings and acts of violence can be directly linked to mentally ill people. Mentally ill individuals often lack reasoning and exhibit impulsive behavior. Finding information on mentally ill individuals is not that difficult because there have been several studies conducted involving mentally ill people. As mass

Literature Analysis and Research Proposal of the Correlation between Mental Illness and Violence and Crime

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.

(Hales et al., 2016) The researcher discussed that they looked into their crimes, and labeled them violent and nonviolent, and certain mental illnesses can be linked to violent tendencies, it can be part of their symptoms. If the

Myth: People who have schizophrenia are likely to be violent and are frequently the suspect criminals of violent crime. Fact: This is another very common and unfounded myth that is distorted by the media. There is an increased risk of violence, especially early in the course of the illness before help has been received, however this risk is low. There is an increased risk of self-harm among people with schizophrenia and this is linked to an increase in the rate of completed suicide. Often, because of the nature of the illness, violence is self-directed either through fear, delusional thinking or the decision to 'no longer cope' with the illness. It is fair to say that a person with schizophrenia has more to fear from the general community

It is unfortunate that society primarily view people with schizophrenia as violent. I think the stigma of violence associated with schizophrenia among other reasons still occurs as a lasting ideology of institutionalization, because of the nature of how schizophrenia is mentioned in the news, and the fact that it is a difficult disease to treat. First, one of the most common myth of the disease is that people suffering from it are violent. This was a driving force during institutionalization and as a result people with the disease were kept from away from society. Although as a society we have moved to deinstitutionalization that idea is still prevalent and has not changed from its origination. Secondly, when schizophrenia is mentioned in the

Schizophrenia is a “serious mental disorder characterised by severe disruptions in psychological functioning and a loss of contact with reality” (Meldrum & Wilson, 2009). The main question that arises from the many studies looking at schizophrenia and violence is does schizophrenia itself make an individual violent or are there other factors from the mental illness that contribute to this? According to Fazel, Guati, Linsell, Geddes and Grahn (2009), before the 1980’s many people made no connection between the disorder of schizophrenia and being violent. However, since more in depth and large research studies has been carried out to look at this connection, it has now been proven that there is a relationship between schizophrenia and violence.

Before I begin my analysis, I would like to address the issue that has hindered the study of this subject. Due to the stigma on mental illness and the tendency of research to focus on the victimizers rather than the victims, there has not been a vast quantity of research on this subject until within the last decade. There are numerous explanations as to why this research was not previously conducted. Choe, Teplin, and Abram (2008) state that this lack of study has been driven by the misconception that people with mental disorders are dangerous, which has lead researchers to study violent perpetration rather than victimization (p. 161). This claim is further supported when studying the work of Silver, Arseneault, Langley, Caspi, and Moffitt (2005), who stated that most studies involving mental disorders portrayed people with mental disorders as

Mental illness and deviance fit together like a puzzle. Many times if someone commits a crime or does something so insanely crazy, people are quick to say “Well, they were mentally ill”. Although, that is not always the case, a lot of the time it is. If someone is an excessive drinker, people will label them mentally ill. They obviously must have something wrong with them if they just drink all the time. If someone commits a murder, they will be labeled mentally ill. If someone does drugs, robs a store, commits suicide, and so many more things – they will automatically be labeled as someone who is mentally ill. People will plead insanity so that they don’t get the death penalty in prison. Pretty much every time, if someone

There is no doubt that the results of a rampage can be tragic, But the media tends to exploit the drama and leave out the context.Aside from the group of severely ill individuals, multiple studies have shown that mental illness alone does Not incline a person to violence.

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