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what is the perception of mental illness in our society today
public perception of mental illness introduction
public perception on mental illness introduction
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We hear on the news about how a person has committed a homicide, or even a treacherous crime. The first thing that pops into one's head is something has to be wrong with that person, but really there isn't anything wrong with them at all. So, are mentally ill people also criminals? Studies suggest that there is no correlation between mental illness and crime.
Why do we as people tend to think that mentally disorder people are so dangerous? According to a recent survey that was conducted. About 60 percent of the people that was asked said that they believe that people with schizophrenia are dangerous. But are they really as dangerous as everyone puts them out to be? As stated in this on this following website, “Schizophrenia.com”:
“People with schizophrenia are far more likely to harm themselves than be violent toward the public. Violence is not a symptom of schizophrenia. News and entertainment media tend to link mental illnesses including schizophrenia to criminal violence. Most people with schizophrenia, however, are not violent toward others but are withdrawn and prefer to be left alone. Drug or alcohol abuse raises the risk of violence in people with schizophrenia, particularly if the illness is untreated, but also in people who have no mental illness. When violence does occur, it is most frequently targeted at family members and friends, and more often takes place at home.”
As knowing a person with this type of disorder it is safe to say that people with this disorder are not harmful to others, but to themselves. Schizophrenia is defined at the “psychiatric disorder with symptoms of withdrawal into self: a severe psychiatric disorder with symptoms of emotional instability, detachment from reality, and withdrawal...
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...ads to suicide which is not any better than being mentally ill. As knowing a person with this type of disorder, She is more harmful to herself rather than others. So, why do we as people that are not around people with this disorder think that people with this disorder are so criminally impaired? For starters, the way the world sees people is if you have a mental illness everything that was done wrong is all that persons fault when really. . They didn’t do anything, but to themselves .When people cause crimes, something has to be right in their head to know what they are doing. Most of our crimes committed today are by people that are not even from our country. Take 9/11 for example. This was an impactful thing that affected most if not all of the United States. When Bin Laden sent his people to come crashing into our twin towers where MANY people worked.
Lamb, H. R. (2004). Mentally ill persons in the criminal justice system: Some perspectives. Psychiatric Quarterly, 108-126.
The World Health Organization states that schizophrenia affects about 21 million people in the world. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder is known for its disruption of perception. This brain disorder is another disorder, like autism, that affects many people. To understand the perception of this disorder would only help us gain more information on the human brain.
If we go easy on them and set them free because they have a mental disorder, they can be a danger to society. For example, Micheal Fisher, who was accused of attempting to abduct a boy from a sports arena in Victoriaville. He was ultimately not found guilty due to mental illness,yet four years later there he is trying to commit the same crime again. It is people like him the reason why we should punish mentally ill offenders with incarceration. People, no matter if mentally disabled or not should be punished equally under the law. That's what it says on the American declaration of independence “...all men are created equal.”. Meaning, we are being fair in placing them in prison. If we put them in a mental institution, they will not listen. For example the attack on Jill Francis, a psychiatric technician who was punched by one of her patients. Even months after the incident, there's still a bruise under her left eye from reconstructive surgery. The person who punched her was Desmond Watkins, who has been previously imprison for assault with a deadly weapon. Francis said that Watkins “..just got fixated all of a sudden that he wanted to go back to prison, and that by hitting someone that would enable him to go back”.This shows that mentally ill offenders are dangerous and unpredictable, and should not be release or treated, but
People should know more about what some mental ill people can actually do. Some of them might act deviant and break informal social rules. For example, when a person suffers from schizophrenia randomly talks in places where he is supposed to be quiet because of his imaginations. Moreover, some mental ill are just crazy and they commit big crimes breaking the law, school shootings or at public places. According to an article written by Adam Peck “2014 is off to a deadly start: in the first 14 school days of the year, there have been at least seven school shootings. For sake of comparison, there were 28 school shootings in all of 2013, according to gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action” (Peck, 1014). These tragedies look unprovable to affect a friend or a family member, but statistics actually show this happens way too often around the country. Most of the people do not realize the magnitude of the situation until they affect themselves or someone they care about. Laws can punish these kind of criminals, but they do not compensate the families and friends that have been affected.
People may think that the mentally ill are mainly the perpetrators of homicidal acts. Although people with critical mental illnesses are twice as likely to be violent, the majority of those with said illnesses are not violent. Drug abuse, divorce, and lack of employment are more likely to result in violent crimes than mental illnesses (Heits 77). Conflict with others, depression, and living in isolation can result in higher crime rates in addition to the previously mentioned factors (“Urban” np). These factors may affect the chances of someone becoming a murderer; however, there is evidence that behavior as a child can dictate the likeliness of someone becoming a murderer. It is even possible that a child can become a murderer when they are still in their
There is a worldwide presumption of the negative implications that are associated with schizophrenia for both the sufferers and the general community they are in. The myth that is particularly prominent in modern day society, despite an increase in education over the years, is that people diagnosed with schizophrenia are dangerous and unpredictable. This stigma has been proved through many studies conducted in different countries and cultures and the perception of schizophrenic patients is at a disadvantage to the way media portrays it in fiction and real-life events. In addition to this, presumption of the dangers of schizophrenia can create a powerful culture of fear that makes a powerful platform for the stigma to be built on. These assumptions about schizophrenia can and will adversely affect those suffering from the disorder and their families indefinitely unless there is a more rigorous education afforded to the public.
SCHIZOPHRENIA Schizophrenia, from the Greek word meaning “split mind”, is a mental disorder that causes complete fragmentation in the processes of the mind. Contrary to common belief, schizophrenia does not refer to a person with a split personality or multiple personalities, but rather to a condition which affects the person’s movement, language, and thinking skills. The question of whether schizophrenia is a disease or collection of socially learned actions is still a question in people’ mind. People who are suffering from schizophrenia think and act in their own the world and put themselves in a way that is totally different from the rest of society. In other words, they have lost in touch with the reality. Most schizophrenics accept the fact that they have this disorder and are willing to receive necessary treatment and listen to, if not follow, professional advice. However there are cases where patients have lost insight and do not acknowledge the fact that they suffer from a mental disorder. As a result, these people do not have the treatment normally patients with schizophrenia do. To observers, schizophrenia may seem like a disease or madness because people who have this disorder behave differently to the people that are considered “normal.” It impairs a person from doing work, going to school, taking care of his/herself or having a social relationship with others. Yet, by looking at some of the symptoms, it is sometimes hard to classify schizophrenia as a disease because it enables those inflicted with it to develop new ways of communication intellectually and creatively, as well as enhancing artistic abilities. A disease is usually some kind of sickness that will lead to death or under heavy medication. However, this is not the case. For now, there is no cure but only treatment to help people with schizophrenia to live more productive lives. Generally, schizophrenia carries enormous threats to the society. About one percent of the people in United States develop schizophrenia and the probability of developing this disorder is independent of the patient’s gender, race or culture. Women are as likely to develop schizophrenia as men but women tend to have less severe symptoms with fewer hospitalizations and are generally able to cope better in the community. About ten percent of the people who have schizophrenia commit suicide and many others attempt...
Schizophrenia is a severe incurable brain disorder that oppresses many today. Schizophrenia affects more than 2 million Americans. It is one of the most feared and misunderstood of all mental illnesses. So with this illness there are many questions. What is the meaning of schizophrenia, how is it diagnosed and how is it treated? With it being the most feared and misunderstood of all mental illnesses what are some stereotypes and fears out there about those with schizophrenia? How do those with the illness and the family members feel about law enforcement and what are their needs when it comes to those in law enforcement? What is being done now in law enforcement to help ones who have this illness?
That all schizophrenia are violent and dangerous, this is not true, in some case it happens but more than likely to become withdrawn than being violent.
A series of shots being fired in the near distance can be heard. A crew of ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks are seen speeding down the streets while blaring their sirens to warn people to move out of the way rapidly. Then, crowds of people are seen running down the street franticly. Sounds of earsplitting yells fill the air. Their eyes are filled with tears of fear and terror. They look as if they were running for their lives. There is a wave of worry and curiosity that washes over everyone’s face as they stand there from a distance watching it take place. There was a sense of wanting to run towards the chaos to see what was going on. But the panic of the people running gave off the feeling of “Warning! Do NOT come this way!” What was happening? Later that night, the news reports that another mass shooting took place earlier on in the day. In the 21st century, many crimes involving mass shootings are the main focus of the public eye in the media. With the technology of the 21st century, investigators are able to look more into depth of the criminal’s background to see if they have a history of mental illness.
The type of crimes that these offenders commit can either be minor or violent crimes. It has been an issue on how people think that having a mental illness leads to violent crimes, when in reality not all of them commit violent crimes. An example of an offender committing these type of crimes would be Johnnie Baxstrom. Johnnie Baxstrom was a mentally ill offender who had committed numerous crimes throughout his life like drinking and property offenses. It wasn’t until October 21, 1958 where he committed a violent act by attacking and stabbing a police officer with a knife. In essence, according to studies people with severe psychological illnesses are more than 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crimes than the general
Factors that contribute to the aggressive or violent behavior in some people with schizophrenia can actually be found at the very structural and functional level of the brain. Several impairments in the structure of the brain of a person with schizophrenia lead to an abnormal function, which can, in turn, lead to a higher probability of aggression. Comorbidity, the presence of two disorders at the same time, of schizophrenia with other disorders can also lead to criminality. Abnormal functioning in a schizophrenic patient’s brain can cause paranoid or persecutory delusions. These delusions are common characteristics of schizophrenia, and are shown to result in criminal behaviors (Hanlon et al., 2012).
It is evident that those with mental illnesses have an increased likelihood of committing crimes. It is important to note, however, that not all people with mental illnesses commit crimes or violent behavior so a cause is not evident. Substance abuse, a mental disorder, is also seen as a large risk in violent behavior (Silver 2006). Hiday (1995) asks the questions of the direction of this correlation. Does mental illness lead to violence or is it vice versa?
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.
This chapter got into more depth about people with schizophrenia. This was one topic I never really knew too much information about it. For a person to be classified as having a psychological disorder, the person’s behavior must not only be unusual, but also disturbing. The people with schizophrenia often suffer symptoms such as hearing voices, people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, plotting against them. Reading this chapter has showed me that schizophrenia is a serious disorder and a very dangerous psychological disorder to themselves and the people around them. The cause of schizophrenia is still unclear. Some theories about the cause of this disease are genetics, biology; and possible infections and immune disorders. Symptoms may develop slowly over months or years, or may appear very