Deviant Crime Associations to Schizophrenia and Anti-Social Behaviors
The two most important fields of science that bind and give structure to the fabric of society is the nature of dissociative disorders such as schizophrenia and the associations to deviant criminal behavior. These fields are very intrinsically tied together to our criminal justice system and our social structure. The application of law within our legal system and the evaluation of a criminal's 'state of mind' are blended to provide safety for society. Determining the form of psychotherapy needed as a form of social rehabilitation is complex. Society needs deterrents for violent forms of crime associated with dissociative disorders but it requires a greater understanding of the functions of the brain. Even though each of these science fields are their own unique and complex structure of data, each of these fields are enhanced from the input of critical data from advancing fields of psychology and the study of the brain.
Criminology is only part of anti-social behavior which may include the causes, nature and control of such criminal behavior. Criminology focuses on criminals, while psychology is applied to understand the mind behind the criminal. Criminology deals with research into the cause, form and consequences of a crime. Psychopathology applies science useful in understanding the abnormalities in early development of the brain that contributed to the creation of the social deviant. It is necessary to include data from both fields to formulate hypothesis that state the nature of anti-social behaviors specifically relating to serious disorders such as schizophrenia. Applying the science of psychology to issues relating to violent crim...
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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.
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In 2000 an article was published in Science by Dr. Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It showed a study conducted by Davidson on those who had previously committed violent crimes versus those who are considered for the most part, “normal.” The results showed distinct brain activity in the more violent offenders in the frontal lobe and limbic system. This leads us to conclude that those who are violent could potentiall...
Every few years there are disturbing, yet fascinating headlines: “BTK killer: Hiding in plain sight” or “Police discover at least 10 victims at Anthony Sowell's home”; but what would allow an individual to commit the crimes they did? In cases like these there is usually a common link: Antisocial Personality disorder. It is an unknown disorder to most of the population which is why there are so many questions to be answered, the main ones being what is antisocial personality disorder and how does it effect patient and society as a whole? To answer these questions one needs an accurate background picture of the disorder.
The "psychological effects" of brain damage and disease can cause the mind to lose touch with reality leading to criminal and violent behavior (1). As a result, free will may be deserted in an individual suffering from abnormalities and chemical imbalances in the brain (2). Consequently, legal issues arise because violent offenders with mental illnesses or brain injuries are not always to blame due to the biological nature of their diseases (2). However, violence in psychiatric and neurological patients can be prevented for the most part through medication and "social support services" (1).
Anti-Social Personality Disorder is a classified personality disorder in which a person, sometimes referred to as a “psychopath”, has a lack of empathy, an increased chance of acting violently towards others, and a complete disregard for authority and punishment. Prevalent features and symptoms include: shallow emotions, irresponsibility, mistrust of others, reckless thrill-seeking, disrespect for the law, prone to lash out with physical violence, harmful impulsiveness, arrogance, manipulative, greedy, lack of kindness or compassion, disrespect for others, and dishonesty (Psychology Today, n.d.). A main factor of this disorder is the inability to process, interpret, and display emotion, even fear. An example is that most criminals with this disorder respond drastically different to their sentencing than normal. They seem relaxed and unable to process it on an emotional level. They are also fully aware of what they are doing, and have no sense of distorted reality, or remorse which classifies them as sane people. They also have neurotransmitter deficiencies in the brain, such as reduced serotonin and dopamine (Freedman & Verdun-Jones, 2010). The overall population of people having this disorder is a small amount, about 3% and higher in prisons and abuse clinics which is around 70%. Also, because of their constant involvement in violence, most people diagnosed with this disorder die by violent means such as suicide and homicide (Internet Mental Health, n.d.).
Ogloff, J. R. (2006). Psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder conundrum. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, (40), 519-528.
Criminology is the scientific study of the causes and prevention of crimes. Criminology also uses a vast amount of theories to explain peoples’ actions, mental state, and their drive for committing crimes. Some crimes have monetary benefits, while other crime are committed in revenge or in spite of another, which would be called crimes of passion. Because it can be sometime difficult to understand why certain crime are committed, the only thing we can do is use theories to better decipher thoughts, morals, and reasons behind committing crimes.
Silver, Eric. 2006. “Understanding the Relationship between Mental Disorder and Violence: The Need for a Criminological Perspective.” Law and Human Behavior 30(6):685-706.
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.
In an idealistic situation, there would be a perfect middle road which would balance science and law, but such a path does not yet exist. Francis Shen of the University of Minnesota asserts that more advanced brain scans designed to identify schizophrenia and other mental ailments would offer beneficial clinical and legal applications. Building off this analysis, I believe that until the tools to identify brain abnormalities are significantly more reliable, legal systems should not put weight on such fragments of scientific evidence. Moreover, future recidivism presents ethical problems. For example, the Mind Research Network tested prisoners in Albuquerque before they were released and found that lower amounts of activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during a rapid decision-making activity was correlated with a greater likelihood of being rearrested. If this information is accepted as universally true, people with comparatively low ACC activity could be confined to prison because of an unfounded fear that they may do something illegal in the future. An alternative course of action in which these findings are acknowledged but the ex-convicts are still released appears to be the only present solution, as these findings have yet to be proven reliable and
The media most often showcases psychopaths as individuals who are inherently evil and dangerous towards themselves and others. Yet, this concept of psychopathy goes far beyond this idea of pure evil and instead necessitates a needed psychological understanding. These individuals, psychopaths, are generally characterized by a lack of empathy and conscience. Indeed, psychopath’s indifference to the repercussions of their actions combined with other characteristics such as hostility and aggression make for a potentially dangerous personality (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In order to identify a psychopath’s recidivism, it is important to differentiate them from sociopaths who, instead of having a psychological impairment that makes it difficult for them to socialize, have been systematically under socialized (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In accordance. psychologists have developed the methods such as the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R) to help identify those with psychopathic tendencies (Walters, 2012, p.409). That is why predictions of recidivism among psychopaths is most efficient when done
The nurturing of individuals plays a role in the making of killers, as 94% of serial killers had experienced some form of abuse as children and 42% have suffered severe physical abuse (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2010). A child abuse is a determining factor, in which supports the idea that serial killers and psychopath, are influenced significantly by nurture (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011). In most cases social, cultural and physiological determinants all play a role in influencing serial killers to grow into a mass murderer. It is important that physiological and social determinants can be identified, so they could be altered for the purpose of preventing the number of crime.
There are various theories within the biological explanation as to why individuals commit criminal behaviour, these include: genetic theory, hereditary theory, psychosis and brain injury theory. In the next few paragraphs examples of each will be shown.