Schizophrenic people belong in jail. Schizophrenia is contagious. People with schizophrenia are more likely to be violent towards others than healthy people. These are all ideas people hold about the disease and none of them define it. Schizophrenia is an illness that damages the way your brain functions and your cognitive abilities.
It is a disorder characterized by major disturbances in perception, language, thought, emotion, and behavior. (Huffman, 2012) The symptoms of schizophrenia happen in episodes rather than consistently. Hallucinations and delusions are the most common symptoms in schizophrenia. Two groups of symptoms also include positive and negative symptoms, (Huffman, 2012) Medications and professional therapy can reduce the risk of future psychotic episodes and improve relationships (Huffman, 2012) In conclusion people can live with schizophrenia every day of their life, but it has to be manageable with the right medication. For others it’s a day to day battle that only they would understand.
Society has misinterpreted stereotypes so heavily that the mentally ill have been classified as careless and violent people. Schizophrenics have been looked down upon as delusional, bipolars thought to turn into criminals, alongside people with personality disorder who are treated as careless freaks. It is simple to go along with society’s opinions, along with their weak and extremely limited knowledge about this topic. Individuals have to understand that the story behind these human flaws is more than meets the eye. Not only are we failing to think outside the box, but we are lacking to even comprehend the label upon our own species.
The fact that psychopaths understand that viscous crimes are very much tragic and definitely illegal, which includes the possibility of being put in a mental institution or prison. The tragic prospect of crimes often doesn’t affect them due to their personality. They also don’t register the pain they inflict upon their victims (Kerns). The basics of knowing the vicious crimes of many psychopaths are well known and view as tragic cases of someone gone crazy, but what most people don’t look at is the fact of many researches done on psychopathic behavior.There s... ... middle of paper ... ...ut most people like to think that they can control their urges. Psychopaths can be manipulative “likeable” social people or they can be drug abusers that can’t deal with their emotions.
The insanity defense is also used and abused by some defendants seeking to receive a less punitive punishment. One major reason why the insanity defense was enforced in courts proceedings is because it will be cruel and unusual punishment to imprison someone who does not understand the charges they ar... ... middle of paper ... ...e jury or judge may fail to realize is that those who suffer a mental disorder lack free will with some of their actions. The most common characteristic seen in those who have mental disorders is the lack of empathy. This lack of empathy plays a role in how gruesome the crimes may be. According to the “men’s rea” no one can be found guilty of a crime if they had no knowledge that their actions were wrong.
A lot of psychopaths exams ask for empathy in this tests and since they have been habituated already: A lot of the anti-social personality disorders. There is a misconception between violent acts and psychopaths. Not all criminals are psychopaths. Not all anti-social disorders lead to criminal acts. Lack of empathy is the lack of interest/less activation in their brains for a violent act.
Families and society are disturbed by schizophrenia too. Several individuals with schizophrenia have trouble maintaining a job or look after themselves, so they depend on others for aid. Treatment aids ease numerous indications of schizophrenia, but utmost individuals who have the disorder manage with indic... ... middle of paper ... ...17 Davidson, L., 2003, Living outside mental illness: Qualitative studies of recovery in schizophrenia, New York: New York University Press Hawton, K., Sutton, L., Haw, C., Sinclair, J., & Deeks, J. J., 2005, Schizophrenia and suicide: systematic review of risk factors, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 187(1), 9-20 Lehman, A. F., Lieberman, J. A., Dixon, L. B., McGlashan, T. H., Miller, A. L., Perkins, D. O., & Kreyenbuhl, J., 2004, Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia, The American Journal of Psychiatry, 161(2 Suppl), 1-56 Sawa, A., & Snyder, S. H., 2002, Schizophrenia: diverse approaches to a complex disease, Science, 296(5568), 692-695 Stefansson, H., Ophoff, R. A., Steinberg, S., Andreassen, O. A., Cichon, S., Rujescu, D., ... & Kahn, R. S., 2009, Common variants conferring risk of schizophrenia, Nature, 460(7256), 744-747
A psychotic person/killer can suffer from schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, meaning they struggle with negative and positive symptons. The disorder symptoms may include a combination of anxiety, paranoia,fear and even hallucinations. These kinds of killers can have stable homes, strong family ties, and no history of abuse. These murderers most likely suffer from mental illness rather than their environment and sorrounding having an affect on their behavior. In addition, a person doesn't have to have to be diagnosed with schizophrenia to suffer with the symptoms.
There tend to be huge misconceptions concerning the causes of schizophrenia and the actions of those suffering from this disease. It should be known that this disease is not a form of demonic possession, nor is it caused by evil spirits or witchcraft. Although in Greek, schizophrenia translates as "split mind," it has been established that those diagnosed with the disease do not have split personalities (3). It is also a myth that people with schizophrenia are more likely to be violent. In general, people suffering from schizophrenia, as well as any other mental illness, are no more dangerous than healthy individuals (1).
Putting the criminally insane in prison could be a bad thing because they are mentally ill and and prison don't have one or more mental disorders present. The mentally ill criminal should be punished for the felony they committed, and they were able to plea for the insanity defence. How does society see them? The criminally insane are not only only criminals, but they also have mental disorder that they do not realize that they have. Being a regular criminal is different from the insane because of their state of minds.