Mental Illness And Crime Essay

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“People with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of crime than to commit them.”
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.
Although there have been some cases of which the person committing the crime has mental health issues due to trauma or bad up bringing in the family area one of these cases was Mr S who was a 22-year-old physics university student he was very isolated but doing great academically, he was an only child and was very introvert with few friends at school his parents divorced when he was 3, after the divorce he hardly saw his father. He had a very close relationship with his mother growing up, sharing a bed with her until puberty. The mother struggled with depression …show more content…

"Characters in prime-time television portrayed as having a mental illness are depicted as the most dangerous of all demographic groups: 60 percent were shown to be involved in crime or violence" (Mental Health American, 1999). Another source of media that portrays mental illness as a factor in all cases is the news when reporting news stories of crimes that have committed also tell of the perpetrators have some sort of mental illness. When programs such as crime watch when describing the perpetrators with mental illness they tell the public not to approach as the person is seen to be dangerous. "Most news accounts portray people with mental illness as dangerous" (Wahl,

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