Dizard’s (2015) newspaper article on the demise of Tanisha Anderson, a mentally ill Cleveland woman in police custody, is evidence of police brutality against the mentally ill. A clear point of understanding in this article is the fact that the police were aware of the victim’s mental illness and yet used an unprofessional method in an attempt to restrain her. The reason why mental health illness is still prevalent in our society is as a results of the stigmatization of the illness that prevents an individual from seeking the proper help. Even in the heightened sense of awareness around the issue of mental health in our society, many mentally ill individuals become victims of abuse on a daily basis. Several researchers have shown the relationship …show more content…
between mental health illness and abuse, with most of the research focusing on the effect of abuse on the mental health of the individual. On the contrary, I argue that women with mental health issues are at a greater risk of abuse.
I make this argument to bring to light how power structures and stereotypes makes women with mental health issues vulnerable members of society and at a greater risk of all forms of abuse. This paper will critique and analyse the case of Tanisha Anderson who was abused by the police and died in custody, by examining how power structures from the Structuralism grand theory, brought about the abuse which lead to her death. The paper will draw on three peer-reviewed articles that dissect the relationship between mental health and abuse in women. It will also take into consideration the assumptions and arguments Dizard (2015) makes in the newspaper article while supporting them with St-Amand and LeBlanc’s piece on Women in the 19th-Century …show more content…
Asylums. In a power-imbalanced structuralized society, individuals with mental health issues are no exception to the harsh treatment and abuse powerless members of society are subjected to. Tanisha Anderson’s mental illness categorized her as the “have nots” of society, allowing those in power in this case the police officers to hold “the truth”, thereby maintaining the dominant-subordinate relationship that is created in a structuralized society (Ferguson, 2015). In this news article, the victim’s lack of power is a contributing factor to her demise. Viewing this subject through a structuralism lens informs us that, the police institution held the power and used it to maintain oppression and dominance against the victim, rendering her powerless and leading to her death. Due to her mental illness, she was not treated with respect and dignity but rather, she was abused and maltreated in the hands of those who are meant to protect the powerless, the vulnerable and the weak of society. The article argues that, the power imbalance between the victim and the police allowed the officers to put the victim in a “prone” position, causing physical restraint on her and eventually leading to her death. Personally, I believe that the victim’s current mental health is what prompted the police officers to react with aggression in order to restrain her. This unequal share of power as stated earlier occurred because the victim suffered from bipolar disorder, which automatically prompted the aggressive restrain action on the part of the police officers. As Test and Berlin (1981) explain in their article on “Issues of Special Concern to Chronically Mentally Ill Women”, the stereotyped view of individuals with mental health issues has led to prejudice against them in society. Because the police officers considered the victim as a potential danger after learning about her bipolar disorder, they resorted to using their assumptions on individuals with mental health to deal with the situation. In an attempt to prevent her from fighting back if she had the opportunity to do so, the officers hurriedly used force to pin her down without considering the harm they could be causing to her. Similarly, St-Amand’s article on Women in 19th Century Asylum describes the terrible food that was given Mary Huestis Pengilly and the other mentally ill patients at the asylum. This is an evidence of the type of inhumane experiences and abuse that individuals with mental health issues have been facing for years now (St-Amand et al, 2013, p. 4). It is obvious that both Mary and Tanisha Anderson received different kinds of abuse from those who held power even so, the underlining concept of their experience is fact that they were both subjected to abuse. Niaz and Hassan (2006) in their article while addressing women’s health in South-East Asian population found that, women whether they have a disability or not are more likely to be abused in comparison to men. This is a results of the structure of society that typically values males over females. Women are generally viewed as “men’s possessions” with their sole purpose as nurtures and to reproduce. Subsequently, research in the health care of women have only focused on their reproductive abilities in these countries (Niaz et al, 2006, 1). As a results, less focus is placed on the mental health issues that they face, leaving those women who require assistance with their mental health issue with none. The duo also found that, women were more likely to develop mental health issues in places where the cultural violence was high (Niaz et al, 2006, p. 1). Consequentially, the more these women become exposed to such violence, the more mentally ill they become and the more abuse the face. As a woman with bipolar from a low income family, it is likely that Tanisha Anderson was also not receiving the assistance she needed in dealing with her bipolar disorder. This may have led her to be unable to control her emotions and resist arrest as stated by the police officers who in turn, forcefully restrained her resulting in her death. Anthony Columbo’s (2005) research article investigated several professional group’s attitude towards the mentally ill.
He found that, compared to all the other professions included in his research, individuals in the police profession were more likely to agree that an individual suffering from a mental health issue should be held responsible for their actions (Columbo, 2005, p. 1). His findings is supported in the case of Tanisha Anderson who the police officers mishandled and abused, in an attempt to restrain. The news article further argues that “Officers too often use unreasonable force against individuals with mental illness, individuals in medical crisis and individuals with impaired faculties" (Dizard, 2015). This argument cannot be disputed as the autopsy conducted on the victim showed that she was forcefully restrained by the officers. Again, the power imbalance creates a major role in this structured society in such a way that, the mentally disabled become the oppressed while the police officers with the power maintain their position as dominant group. Looking back from the 19th Century, not a lot has changed in the structuring of society in terms of power. Pengilly’s experience at the asylum continues to happen today outside the asylum under the watch of those who are trusted to protect the vulnerable (St-Amand et al, 2013, p.
5). Test and Berlin (1981) provided evidence that, women with mental health issues are typically from lower income families and tend to have lower levels of trust in relationships. These women the duo explained tend to become isolated due to discriminations they might have faced previously or are currently facing. This is especially true in cases where intimate partner violence is occurring however, Tanisha Anderson’s case is clear evidence that the abuse of mentally ill women occur everywhere even in the law enforcement institutions. Similar to the three women in the 19th Century who were taken to asylum against their will and on the instruction of a dominant male, Tanisha Anderson was forcefully restrained against her will by the male dominated police institution. As this paper has shown, women with mental health issues are at greater risk of abuse due to the power structure of society that makes women with disability vulnerable members of society, and the stereotype of mental illness that makes it difficult for individuals to seek the appropriate assistance. In order to completely eliminate a case like that of Tanisha Anderson from repeating itself, it is essential that we do not only continue to spread awareness on the issues of mental health but also work towards breaking that barriers in society that makes seeking help for mental health impossible.
During the 1960’s, America’s solution to the growing population of mentally ill citizens was to relocate these individuals into mental state institutions. While the thought of isolating mentally ill patients from the rest of society in order to focus on their treatment and rehabilitation sounded like a smart idea, the outcome only left patients more traumatized. These mental hospitals and state institutions were largely filled with corrupt, unknowledgeable, and abusive staff members in an unregulated environment. The story of Lucy Winer, a woman who personally endured these horrors during her time at Long Island’s Kings Park State Hospital, explores the terrific legacy of the mental state hospital system. Ultimately, Lucy’s documentary, Kings
In the book Crazy in America by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, she illustrated examples of what people with mental illness endure every day in their encounters with the criminal justice system. Shayne Eggen, Peter Nadir, Alan Houseman and Joseph Maldonado are amongst those thousands or more people who are view as suspected when in reality they are psychotic who should be receiving medical assistance instead, of been thrown into prison. Their stories also show how our society has failed to provide some of its most vulnerable citizens and has allowed them to be treated as a criminals. All of these people shared a common similarity which is their experience they went through due to their illness.
Battered women constitute one of the most marginalized groupings in the social order. Their relationship incidents occasionally put these individuals into disagreement with the law, particularly when they murder their violent partners. The Battered woman syndrome (BWS) was created by clinical psychologist (1970’s) with an intention of depicting the series of occurrences that physically abused women frequently experience in their relationships.
The article “Family Says Man Shot by Officers was Mentally Ill” discusses an incident where Kody Conley, an African-American male experiencing schizophrenia, was shot by two police officers in Omaha, Nebraska. The incident took place after Conly fired a stolen gun near Creighton University campus. After the incident took place near the campus, Conley was taken to CHI-Creighton (Creighton University Medical Center), and is said to be alive. Although he is alive, his family expresses that he is in serious condition and is in a medically induced coma. The author, Miranda Christian, reports the two police officers who shot Conley are on administrative leave, and the Omaha Police Department are currently investigating the incident.
Continuing budget cuts on mental health care create negative and detrimental impacts on society due to increased improper care for mentally ill, public violence, and overcrowding in jails and emergency rooms. Origins, of mental health as people know it today, began in 1908. The movement initiated was known as “mental hygiene”, which was defined as referring to all things preserving mental health, including maintaining harmonious relation with others, and to participate in constructive changes in one’s social and physical environment (Bertolote 1). As a result of the current spending cuts approaching mental health care, proper treatment has declined drastically. The expanse of improper care to mentally ill peoples has elevated harmful threats of heightened public violence to society.
This stereotype contributes to the stigma individuals’ face and encourages social exclusion and intolerance, especially in schizophrenia (Ray & Brooks Dollar, 2014). Ken sought out help and went to the emergency room because he recognized he was severely depressed. There, the doctor promised he would not be put in restraints, yet when he was taken to the hospital, he was placed in restraints because it was company policy (Steele & Berman, 2001). Due the stigma that individuals with mental illness are violent, Ken was not treated fairly (Stuart & Arboleda-Florez, 2012). Stuart and Arboleda-Florez (2012) are very credible authors to be writing on the effects of stigma in mental health. Both authors have experience in psychiatry, combatting stigma and mental health issues.
Patricia Hill Collins outlines the existence of three different dimensions of gender oppression: institutional, symbolic, and individual. The institutional dimension consists of systemic relationship of domination structured through social institutions, such as government, the workplace or education institutions. In other words, this dimension explains “who has the power”. This is completely related to a patriarchal society. Patriarchy is the manifestation and institutionalism of male dominance. This means that men hold power in all institutions, while women are denied the access to this power. The symbolic dimension of oppression is based on widespread socially sanctioned ideologies used to justify relations of domination. It reflects inequality
An abused woman is always faced with a number of different choices from which she may consider, with regards to seeking help or ending the relationship with a variety of alternatives, the woman knows each decision involves a variety of risks. Time after time, the common question arises, “why doesn’t she just leave?” This question can be answered by analyzing the psychological effects domestic abuse has on women. Many women are unable to cope with the emotional and psychological stress of domestic abuse and resort to violence and extre...
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and of that over sixty percent of jail inmates reported having a mental health issue and 316,000 of them are severely mentally ill (Raphael & Stoll, 2013). Correctional facilities in the United States have become the primary mental health institutions today (Adams & Ferrandino, 2008). This imprisonment of the mentally ill in the United States has increased the incarceration rate and has left those individuals medically untreated and emotionally unstable while in jail and after being released. Better housing facilities, medical treatment and psychiatric counseling can be helpful in alleviating their illness as well as upon their release. This paper will explore the increasing incarceration rate of the mentally ill in the jails and prisons of the United States, the lack of medical services available to the mentally ill, the roles of the police, the correctional officers and the community and the revolving door phenomenon (Soderstrom, 2007). It will also review some of the existing and present policies that have been ineffective and present new policies that can be effective with the proper resources and training. The main objective of this paper is to illustrate that the criminalization of the mentally ill has become a public health problem and that our policy should focus more on rehabilitation rather than punishment.
In criminological history, discrimination against women was so evident and naturalised because for centuries, the underlying concept of ‘patriarchy’ or the power of men over women made it acceptable to stereotype women to subordinate women to male power (Carraine et al., 2014). Discrimination against women was maintained by the privileged group, that is men, and operated on multiple dimensions on an individual, institutional, and cultural level (Bell, 2010). On a cultural level, women were believed to be naturally suited to the domestic sphere, and
were males, 7221, and the rest 564 were females. In order to see if the participates had any sort of mental illness they looked at self reported treatment, related to mental health (Biltz). The results of this study found that the amount of inmates that participating in this study had a disproportionally number of inmates with mental healthy that were physically victimized. According to this study prisons are a violent and unsafe place for people who suffer from mental illness (Biltz). Male inmates who suffered from any form of mental illness were nearly 1.6 times more likely to be physically victimized while in prison. Females inmates who had a mental illness were even more likely to suffer from physical victimization, they were nearly 2 times more likely than male inmates with mental illness (Blitz). Inmates that were African Americans and Hispanics were more likely to be physically victimized either by inmates or staff.
Prior to taking this course, I generally believed that people were rightly in prison due to their actions. Now, I have become aware of the discrepancies and flaws within the Criminal Justice system. One of the biggest discrepancies aside from the imprisonment rate between black and white men, is mental illness. Something I wished we covered more in class. The conversation about mental illness is one that we are just recently beginning to have. For quite a while, mental illness was not something people talked about publicly. This conversation has a shorter history in American prisons. Throughout the semester I have read articles regarding the Criminal Justice system and mental illness in the United States. Below I will attempt to describe how the Criminal Justice system fails when they are encountered by people with mental illnesses.
A young woman by the name of Kendra Webdale was pushed in front of a train in New York City by a homeless person that suffered from a mental illness. The homeless man was not taking his medication at the time of the incident. Shortly after the unfortunate event the Kendra’s Law came into place. The law provides outpatient treatment for certain people with mental illness who are unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision. The treatment is a written treatment plan prepared by a physician who has examined the individual. The procedure involves a hearing which includes testimony from the examining physician. If the court finds that the person meets the criteria for assisted outpatient treatment, an order is issued to the director of community services. The court orders will require the director to arrange for all services that the court finds necessary. The initial order is for up to 6 months but can be extended for up to one year. The legislation also establishes a procedure for evaluation in cases where the individual fails to comply with the ordered treatment and may pose a risk of harm. Kendra’s Law also ensures that people with mental illness who are transitioning from hospitals or correctional facilities to the community receive necessary psychiatric medications without interruption (Office of Mental Health,
Several states authorize police officers to arrest mentally ill people who have not broken any law. It is argued that this process is a way to promote public order. Hospitals also transfer mentally ill patients to jail in order to deal with the overflow. It is not uncommon for children to be confined to criminal detention centers because there is a lack of facilities for severely mentally ill children. Relying on the criminal justice systems to be surrogate mental health systems conflicts with the basic notions of justice. (Aufderheide,
Mass media “references to people with mental health problems found more than four in ten articles in the press used derogatory terms about mental health and nearly half of press coverage related mental illness to violence and crime” (Esseler, 244). This is causing for people to look down upon the mention of mental illnesses and many times ignore the importance of confronting this issue. Therefore the importance of removing this stigmatization is crucial. Education allows to make more informed decisions and then changing the perception of mental illness can lead towards policy changes toward the improvement of mental health (Sakellari,