Crime and Mental Illness Essay

Introduction: Exploring the Relationship between Crime and Mental Illness

According to the Oxford dictionary, a crime is any action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law, whereas mental illness is a condition which causes serious disorder in a person's thinking or behaviour. The relationship between crime and mental disorder has been a subject of concern and debate for the last couple of years especially among the health professionals, the criminal justice system, the public and correctional systems. These have triggered research on the reason why the mentally ill individuals involve in various criminal acts. Debates on the topic of crime and mental illness is based on the fact that mentally ill people are most likely to commit criminal and violent acts to themselves, their families, close friends and even the public because of their mental state. This essay reviews the relationship that lies between crime and mental illness also giving the school of thought that individuals with mental illness do not involve in criminal offences. The issue of substance abuse, mental illness and crime, psychological symptoms of mental disorder, the historical, socioeconomic, demographic factors and laws and response on account of mental illness has greatly been covered.

Substance Abuse and Crime Among Individuals With Mental Illness

In the course of the last decade, various researchers have critically examined people with mental illness and involvement in criminal activities to see if there exists a relationship between the two. Substance abuse was a precondition for violent and criminal acts among individuals with mental illness (Lam and Rosenheck, 2009). Despite this Taylor et al. (2012) disagree with this assumption, they argue that the nature of aggression should be considered in measuring the relationship between crime involvement and mental illness. In a study carried out by Taylor et al. (2003) on people charged by the law in British Columbia, it concluded that 22.0% of their cohorts had in the recent past been involved in a criminal offence due to the influence of alcohol or non-prescribed drugs. Furthermore, research has shown that the relationship between mental illness and crime involvement is often eliminated when substance and alcohol abuse are considered (Lam et al., 1998). Therefore, from the preceding statements, does it imply that the elimination of drugs and substance abuse would lead to a reduction in crime? It has been reported that lifetime prevalence of domestic violence among the mentally ill individuals ranges between 30%-60% with women reporting higher rates than men (Taylor et al., 2012). Felthous et al. (2009) inform us to consider patients who respond to commanding hallucinations by acting violently; this tells us that drug and substance abuse may not be at the most time the predetermined factor.

Psychological Symptoms and Their Role in Criminal Behavior Among the Mentally Ill

The essence of psychological symptoms in explaining the involvement of mentally ill patients in criminal and violent behaviour is an issue of experimental complexity. A section of research has concluded that psychological symptoms such as hallucinations, disillusion, medical compliance and treatment adherence are indicators of violence among people who have mental illness (Lam et al., 2012). Lam and Rosenheck (2009) considered the psychological factors while recent findings took into consideration the gender nature of accepting delusional beliefs and that women and men respond significantly different to symptomatology affecting their participation in criminal offences. However, on a study conducted on prisoners convicted with mental illness, Sirotich (2008) disallowed the above analysis citing alcohol and drug use as, particularly important control variables as they strongly associate with violence and mental illness. In analysis of the role of psychological symptoms in determining crime involvement among people with mental illness, Lam and Rosenheck (2008) pointed out that comorbidity is a common factor in the association between mental illness and involvement in violence and preferred that there is a significant possibility of reducing levels of crime by improving risk assessment and treatment measures. Study on the effects of specific psychotic symptoms has pointed out yielded opaque findings, for instance in observing the role hallucinations have to perform in the criminal acts by mentally ill people, studies show that it does not entirely predict violence, but that hallucination leading to violent acts increased the likelihood of involvement in criminal acts (Frank Sirotich, 2008). However, despite all these, further research is needed in this area to unwrap the role played by psychological symptoms on crime involvement (Taylor, 2012)

Historical, Socioeconomic, and Demographic Factors in the Context of Crime and Mental Illness

Taking into account the implications of historical factors such parental violence, delinquency before adulthood on crimes and parental crime, Frank Sirotich (2008) stated that history based on delinquency before adulthood is a significant factor about crime and violence. After analysing the samples of mentally ill individuals, he concluded that among mentally ill people, juvenile delinquency, early arrests and young age index offence were found robust predictors of crime involvement for mentally ill people. In examining reasons for recidivism rates for the incarcerated mentally disordered offenders, Sirotich Frank (2008) realised that parental involvement in the crime was related to recidivism among the mentally ill offender. A study also carried out on 145 males, and female mental illness patients concluded that out of all the 145 patients, 31 were stable, 67 hospitalised and only 47 were arrested 37 of them having a history of violence (Lam et al., 2009). However, the relationship between historical, socioeconomic and demographic factors with crime and mental illness is not that much, and further study on this area must be done.

As earlier stated, individuals with mental illness are not directly responsible for their criminal acts because they have a mental disorder. But what does the law take on such cases? Victims of mental illness criminal acts are not an exception in the face of the law. They are always prosecuted as the criminal laws and sentenced accordingly. They are taken to special correction facility which consists only of mentally ill prisoners. People have criticized the government on mental illness laws that the victims should be forgiven because of their state of mind (Sirotich, 2008).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the relationship between crime and mental illness is quite opaque. The mentally ill individuals involve in criminal activities due to substances and drug abuse, and there has been a good record to justify this. There are various symptoms of mental illness which upon recognition in advance can greatly help to curb crime due to mental illness. Crimes caused by mentally ill individuals are punishable by law as there are a set of regulations in each country concerning the prosecution of the mentally ill individuals.

Works Cited

Sirotich F. Correlates of crime and violence among persons with mental disorder: an evidence-based review. Brief Treat Crisis Interv 2008;8:171-94.

Frogley C, Taylor D, Dickens G, et al. A systematic review of the evidence of clozapine's antiaggressive effects. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 2012;15:1351-71.

Lam JA, Rosenheck R. The effect of victimization on clinical outcomes of homeless persons with serious mental illness. Psychiatr Serv 1998;49:678-83.