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Crime and mental illnesses
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VIOLENCE: SUICIDE AND HOMICIDE AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO MENTAL DISORDERS Introduction: The regular instances of criminal activities which involves harming or killing someone else (Homicide) or killing oneself (Suicide) is a common occurrence which at many instances can be attributed to some sort of mental disorder. Not all patients having one or another form of mental disorder displays aggressiveness enough that can lead to homicide, or at the other end of spectrum is so overwhelmed with hopelessness that the patient eventually comes to end his/her life. But, there is evidences which indicate that there is increased probability of these occurrences among individuals suffering from a mental disorder. There are other criminal activities such as rape and other form of violation of criminal law which can be associated with some or other form of mental disorder. SUICIDE Suicide can be defined as an attempt to end one’s own life via inflicting oneself with some sort of injury which can lead to adverse health condition and eventually death of the patient. Various method that are employed at different occasions are Self-hanging, poisoning, gun fire, jumping from height etc. The occurrence of suicide is higher among certain cohort of population such as adolescents, elderlies, professionals, and people suffering from mental disorders. We attempt to cover various mental illnesses that can be associated with increased occurrences of suicide. The suicidal tendency can be classified according to outcome into following: Suicidal ideations Suicidal plans Suicide attempts Identification and prevention of hideous outcomes in future is one of the foremost responsibility of different organizations including law-enforcers and health professio... ... middle of paper ... ...his should not preclude the legal interventions. The act of homicide or accidents Performed after consumption of substance of abuse might not be committed with full insight, but these acts are still punishable by law. Anti-androgen medications such as medroxyprogesterone acetate decrease testosterone levels and can reduce deviant sexual perversions in individuals having various paraphilia’s. Reporting of incidents of domestic abuse and child abuse is usually failed on part of victim as they are apprehensive due to many issues. Such patients have to be reassured about social support system and encouraged to talk. Those who are covering for medical professional and keeping a watch over suicidal tendency patient need to be properly educated and should be provided with proper guidelines. Slight neglect on their part can have grave outcomes.
...Mood Disorders and Suicide. In Abnormal Psychology (16th Ed.) (pp. 211-262). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Suicidal behaviour is described in this paper as a continuum of gradually increasing seriousness: feeling that life is not worth living, thoughts of taking ones own life, seriously considering
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.
A mental illness is a medical condition that affects a person’s mood, thinking, feeling, and decision making that is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. There are many different types of mental illnesses, but the two that are correlated with violence the most are Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. Schizophrenia is a mental illness that causes a person to not think clearly, to hear voices, not to relay emotions to certain events, and they cannot decipher whether they are in reality or not. Bipolar Disorder is a mental illness that causes a person to have severe mood swings from extremely depressed to a s...
The media is a dominating aspect of American culture. The way the media depicts crime and criminal behavior has an effect on the way society views crime and criminals. Television series such as CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, Criminal Minds and countless others, have become very popular in our society today showing that our culture has an immense interest in crime. It is clear that there is a fascination with criminals and why they do the things they do. To analyze the way crime dramas represent crime and criminal behavior, I completed a content analysis of one episode of Criminal Minds. The episode I chose was season one; episode eight, which first aired in 2005, titled ‘Natural Born Killer’.
...t: (http://www.psych.org/public_info/VIOLEN~1.HTM) Government Survey (1990) Violence and Psychiatric Disorders in the Community: Evidence from the Epidemiological Catchment Area Surveys. Hospital and Community Psychiatry (41:761770) Holy Bible (1998) Leviticus Chapter 19 verse 18, King James version (204:2049) Hudson, Thomas (1978) The Laws of Psychic Phenomena. Internet: (http://www.appi.org/pnews/sep20/jail.htm1) (pg.1 & 2) Illinois State Police (1999) Violence in the Workplace Characteristics. Internet: (http://www.state.il.us/ISPviowkplc/vwpp4.htm) Modestin, Jiri (1997) Is Depression A Risk Factor for Crime? Crime Times, Internet: (http://www.crime~times.org/97d/w97dp6.htm) (p.1) National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) (1999) The Criminalization of People with Mental Illness. Summary of the NAMI Policy Platform (1:8) National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) (1999) The Criminalization of People with Mental Illness. Summary of the NAMI Policy Platform (3:8) Taridiff, K. (1980) Assault, Suicide and Mental Illness. Archives of General Psychiatry (37:164169) Webster Dictionary (1988) Unabridged Yapko, Micheal D. (1997) The Art of Avoiding Depression. Psychology Today
Crime can be described combination between both behavior and mental factors. This will prove incredibly crucial in the definition of crime in relation to mental illness. Many of those that commit crimes are not convicted due to their illness so it is important to note, for the purpose of this analysis, that all illegal activity is considered crime, regardless of conviction (Monahan and Steadman 1983).
The post-industrial revolution period, marks a turning point in in perceptions towards crime and the motives behind it. While the industrial revolution resulted in an imminent influx of the working class in the cities in seek for employment due to the falling standards of living in the agrarian areas, poverty was not initially considered to be the prime cause of crime in any circumstance. Police reports1 even went as far to suggest the existence of an attraction in a individual towards a criminal life. Therefore, it could be argued whether such reports are suggestive of the existence of a separate criminal class in British society, yet in the longer term, as proposed by Professor S.E Finer2, the report caused the manifestation of a new attitude amongst the public, that downplayed the effect of “want” due to austerity. Interestingly nonetheless, prison admissions showed considerable proportionality with the state of trade and the price of wheat,3 which thus implies that crime realities were not accommodated in the public eye. Notions of a “criminal class” were very popular from the mid-19th to the beginning of the 20th century; such views claimed the impossibility of individuals to maintain permanent employment, even if they so desired and similarly that “honest habits”4 would never deign to unlawful acts, even if stimulated by “extreme hardships”. As a result, this proposes cyclical infatuations and obsessions with committing crime that could not be contained.
The stereotype that goes hand in hand with mental illness that though seems to have improved over the years is still pervasive. Teplin, Abram & McClelland (1994) state that people in general, believe that people with mental illness are more likely to commit violent crime with those without mental illness. In their study they seek to find evidence to that statement – to learn if having a mental illness increases the likeliness of violent crime and recidivism after release from prison. This author seeks to discover the same using similar data to learn if there is a connection between violent crime and mental illness.
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 misunderstood behavior not being considered a normality in society. In this report I will go into detail of what mental health and mental illness is, what the differentiates a normal and a mentally unstable criminal, give examples of criminal cases where the defendant’s state of mind was brought up, introduce theories surrounding why one would commit crimes due to their mental health, and lastly I will discuss how the criminal justice system has been modified to accommodate mental health issues.
That is to say that not all people who commit crimes have mental disorders, because it has been proven that there are people out there who are mentally healthy and still act violently, take for example Al Capone who was never diagnosed of a mental disorder yet he committed multiple crimes. Substance abuse also play a role in the committing of crimes, but it could also be argued that those who part-take in substance abuse suffer from addiction which is also classified as a mental illness. Same goes for those who are addicted to substances and abuse it. Those who suffer from mental illnesses AND addiction are 10 times more likely to commit crimes than a person who isn’t addicted. Mental illnesses although born with, can also be caused by a past event that affects the patient in adulthood, such as sexual abuse or domestic violence during childhood.
Before elaborating on what causes suicide it should be understood what we mean by cause. The Oxford English Dictionary defines cause as “a person or thing that gives rise to an action, phenomenon or condition.” This essay will in part examine the methods employed by suicidal patients though this is secondary to whatever caused them to make this decision. The essay will consider the epidemiology of suicide (also regarding suicide clustering) followed by the potential genetic risk factors. This will be followed by the psychological factors such as depressive disorders, and finally the environmental risk factors such as low socioeconomic status and substance abuse.
Most Mentally ill people are not violent and repeated studies have shown that there is only a small significant association with mental illness. Many people presume that crimes that are committed are committed by people with mental illness due to not knowing the facts because most people shy away from educating their selves about mental illness and what it is.
Sociologists have been examining crime and its causes for over 150 years, and through several researches, various explanations have been used to describe crime and deviance. Crime is a behaviour that goes against all formal written laws of a given society (Haralambos, Smith, O 'Gorman, & Heald, 1996). Laws in different societies differ, so do crimes i.e. what may be considered as a crime in one society may not be in another different society. For instance, while same-sex relationship is accepted in some countries like the United States, United Kingdom etc. it is illegal in countries like Nigeria, and most Arabic countries. Other examples of general crimes are theft/robbery, murder, kidnapping and others. Once a crime is committed, sanctions
I would not force my client into talking if they aren't ready but discuss when their comfortable whenever they are ready in disclosing. Since I am aware of my background of suicidal and know what could be done to help those with suicidal tendencies I would do everything I can to help my client feel protected and safe. I would ask my client more about them and find out if their situation because I would not want them at risk of harm. Therefore, my awareness and reflection will not influence my work with a client that is suicidal. I will strive to assist helping the client to make sure they are not harming themselves, when did the suicidal thoughts begin, do they have a safety plan created, who they have in their support system, and what they can describe to me they like to do as their interests. All of this would be beneficial to me when assisting the client when finding out that they are suicidal since they are the one at risk of harm. I would try not put my influences of my past assist working with the client. Since I truly believe that each one person that comes in that seeks help deserves a chance turn their life around. Also, I wouldn't want them to feel that their personal experiences of religion and culture will intervene with our relationship when they disclose to me that they feel this