What conclusions do these arguments lead to? Was Brady’s childhood an adequate factor? I found that Garavelli and Stanford’s investigation were the best sources. I based this judgement on reliability and the context of these sources. Although, Harrison provides a non-judgemental approach; his investigation was relatively new. His investigation does not have the benefit of hindsight, therefore he was not able to use a greater range of evidence to strengthen his argument. Whereas, Garavelli and Stanford had decades to improve their analyses with new evidence that came to light. Brady was brought to trial once again during the time that Garavelli and Stanford’s investigations were produced. How is this relevant to his childhood? It is relevant because the knowledge of psychology have advanced that enabled Garavelli and Stanford to judge properly, whether Brady’s isolated childhood was a prominent factor. Whilst, Harrison did not have that luxury. His work was produced when knowledge of psychology were limited, something he had admitted. There was an “inadequate state of psychiatric knowledge” . Was Brady always psychopathic? It was more difficult to evaluate the sources that judged whether Ian Brady was schizophrenic because all sources appear that this may be the case. Nevertheless, I was impressed by Harrison’s in-depth detail. It is often that a criminal may suffer from a mental health illness; it explains their behavioural patterns. Harrison does not assume that Brady was schizophrenic immediately, instead he leads into this by exploring aspects of life that may have been the slow progression into schizophrenia. Although, Harrison provided incredible detail; he is not a psychologist. Therefore, his analysis lacks specialis... ... middle of paper ... ...an impact on his motivations? Myra Hindley was a complicated person to evaluate, as there is little explicit evidence to presuppose that this transformation was inevitable. However, Harrison’s “Folie a Deux” argument is the strongest. I cannot deny that the introduction to destructive interests, such as “Anti-Semitic literature” will have played a powerful part. Nevertheless, it seems that all this may have been elements of “Folie a Deux”. Though, this section has been focused on Hindley, it exhibits how vital Hindley’s transformation had been for Brady’s nature. Previously, I had claimed that Stanford’s conclusion about their “us-against-the-world paranoia” was too simplistic…the “Folie a Deux” argument gives good grounds why this paranoia may have developed. The psychiatric syndrome “Folie a Deux” may have been a fundamental fragment in Brady’s criminal nature
...pent up feelings of apathy and detachment make it simple for an individual to remove themselves from their actions and take out their feelings of neglect on those completely undeserving. This is exemplified no better than in the case of Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassinator of John F. Kennedy. As a child, Oswald was neglected by his parents. During a medical exam during his teenage years, he was diagnosed with a “personality pattern disturbance with schizoid features” that had been caused by “existing under emotional isolation and deprivation” (Hartogs). Had Oswald not had a schizoid personality, perhaps Kennedy would have lived to serve our country. The combination of the never ending cycle of indifference and the outbursts of rage put the schizoid personality disorder and the top of the spectrum of the societal effects of personality disorders and mental illnesses.
Lamb, H. Richard., Weinberger, Linda E., & Gross, Bruce H. (2004). Mentally ill persons in the criminal justice system: Some Perspectives. Psychiatric Quarterly 75(2): 107-126.
2) Does Insanity "Cause" crime? : Thomas Szasz, M.D., The Myth of Mental Illness (1960)
Markowitz, F. E. (2011). Mental illness, crime, and violence: Risk, context, and social control. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 36-44.
John George Haigh, known as the Acid Bath Killer, was born on July 24, 1909. Haigh, who was born in Lincolnshire and raised in West Yorkshire, committed one of the most bizarre and disturbing cases of mass murder. Haigh’s parents were fanatically religious and believe all was evil in the world. The Lord was often used in the Haigh household as a reminder that there was always a higher deity watching. As a young boy, John was separated from the rest of the world. He spent many years in and out of prison for fraud. The mass murder spree began on September 9, 1944.
Pearson, P. (1998). When she was bad: How and why women get away with murder. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc.
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
...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
During Dahmer’s psychiatric evaluation, Dr. Wahlstrom concluded, “Jeffrey was suffering from a mental illness never cured for” (FBI 1992). This leads me to perceive that Dahmer must have been displaying psychotic traits that went unnoticed and undocumented during his early lifetime. I can only speculate that this uncured mental illness lead Dahmer to develop and refine his inability to empathize with society; which in turn, lead him to engage in cruelty without mentally comprehending the victim’s suffering. Although the causes for psychopathy are unclear, some suggest that psychogenic aspects can outline abnormalities which may be present in psychopaths (Schmalleger 2014). When looking at Dahmer’s distant relationship with his parents early on in his childhood, I became conscious of the fact the lack of affection from his parents which may have lead him to develop twisted views on how one should display affection to others, thus prompting him to show psychotic behavior later on in life (The profile of Jeffrey Dahmer 1996). Even though the letter of the law fails to describe Dahmer and even if he was not fit to stand trial, I believe the court would have declared him fit for trial due to the brutality of the
Introduction: On the spectrum of criminal activity, serial killers are rather rare. Rarer still is a serial killer like Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to killing 28 women in the 1970s in ghastly fashion and some believe he may have killed far more. It is hard to imagine what could cause any person to cross the mental boundary into such macabre behavior as Bundy perpetrated. Nevertheless, it is important to try to understand that behavior because only though such an understanding would society be able to identify and deter mass murderers in order to save lives.
To think how far we have come with medicine and technology is astounding. Looking into the biological model of abnormalities we learn that the focus is to connect a medical prospective to the variations in abnormal behavior. The text uses the case of Philip Berman, a person who exhibits a wide range of emotion when triggered with certain topics. In this case researchers are looking to find a glitch between his body chemistry and his behavior. The question here is: Can there be a connection between imperfect organisms within the body which in turn display abnormal behavior? We learn from the text that the brain has many parts that are designed to specific duties. If one of the nerves or cells is faulty, can it somehow be tied to the way a person acts? The answer is yes. We know that abnormal behavior is not just that of a mental disorder, and we know that certain chromosomal disorders have been proven to cause abnormalities within the human body. In Philip’s case, it is not necessarily a behavior that we know could be caused by a glitch in the system. We learned many facts about his life that can play a role in the way he carries himself. If we were looking into his genetic inheritance we might ask questions like the genetic makeup of the family history (i.e. has there been a history of mental disorder in the family?). Was Philip used to being an only child for so
...ny requirements for a psychopath, even though a formal test like the PCL-R cannot be completed because he took away his own life before investigation was final. However, he is similar to a few psychopaths that this course studied over the past nine weeks making it possible to compare him. Some aspects are still questionable of Keyes’s, like his childhood, but otherwise he does represent much of what has been learned of the psychopath in this class.
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).
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.
In an article titled, What is Forensic Psychology, Anyway?, John Brigham attempts to explain the beginnings of psychology and law; Forensics Psychology. Brigham explains that, “forensic psychology involves the interaction of psychology and the legal process” (Brigham 274). Brigham further highlights a historical case and the precedent established by the House of Lords through the induction of the McNaughten Rule, which translates, “To establish a defense on the ground of insanity it must be clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was laboring under such defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know nature and quality of the act he was doing, or he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong” (Finkel, 1988, p21; Brigham p275). Brigham explains that the concept of introducing psychology into the field of law ...