More Evidence: Crime Not Linked to Mental Illness

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A new study published in the American Psychological Association journal Law and Human Behavior has found that contrary to popular belief, crime may not be linked to mental illness.

When analyzing crimes committed by offenders suffering from a serious mental disorder, only 7.5 percent of those crimes were related to the symptoms of the perpetrator’s illness.

The study analyzed 429 crimes committed 143 former defendants of a mental health court located in Minneapolis, MN. These offenders suffered from three major types of mental illness: major depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

When the crimes were examined in depth, researchers found that only three percent of the crimes committed were directly related to symptoms of the patient’s illness. Furthermore, the study couldn’t find any predictable patterns that linked mental illness to criminal conduct over time.

This is surprising, considering that there are 1.2 million  According to lead researcher Jillian Peterson, PhD., this is because when the public hears about crimes committed by offenders suffering from mental illness, the crimes tend to be bigger. These crimes are more likely to catch the attention of newspapers, and tend to stand out more in the public’s mind. “The fast majority of people with mental illness are not violent,” Peterson states.

In fact, many of the offenders who had committed crimes related to their illness had also committed crimes that could not be linked to their symptoms. These previous crimes were often related to other factors such as poverty, homelessness, or unemployment.

When reviewing the offender’s criminal history and social worker case files, crimes could be rates as: no relationship, mostly unrelated, mostly related, or directly related to the symptoms of mental illness.

When combining crimes that were directly and mostly related to the symptoms of schizophrenia (delusions, hallucinations), bipolar disorder (risk-taking behavior, impulsiveness), and depression (suicidal thoughts, hopelessness), the percentage of crimes attributed to the offender’s symptoms increased to 18 percent. Bipolar disorder seemed to have the most impact on criminal behavior, with 62 percent of the crimes being related to the offender’s symptoms. In offenders with schizophrenia, 23 percent of the crimes were related, and in depression 15 percent.

The researchers hope that this will encourage facilities focused on treatments to reduce recidivism will expand their efforts beyond treating the mental health issue, and include treatment in criminal thinking. Programs focused on cognitive behavioral therapy and anger management may also help in addition to mental health treatments.

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  • impeach obama

    mental health workers/thought police are mega rich super brutal fraudsters who torture for satanic ritual, sadist fetish, $, to punish and intimidate political opponents, gov criticizers, easy targets. totalitarian. 50% of $ spent on social security, medicare, medicaid is spent on "mental health". victims are tortured/threatened w abuse/neglect(and the poor that gov stole their other options to live,are paid)into pretending to like the treatment. nsa surveillance.
    almost all if not all mental health workers say everyone in the entire world will always have a mental disorder/"illness"(including animals) except sometimes exclude them self. every emotion and action including happiness they labeled a mental disorder.

  • impeach obama

    1 out of 5 americans wrongly labeled mentally ill face to face by mental health workers-often against their will, its not more because their not powerful enough to kidnap everyone.
    $50/5min phyCIAtrist. $100/hr counselor $1000+/m for drugs. $2000+/day in mental institution. 50% of $ spent on social security, medicare, medicaid(these are 100%tax funded) is spent on "mental health"
    mental illness/health never exists, its always been fraud and slang/sarcasm made up by thought police.
    mental disorder is in the eye of/an individual opinion of the controller. disorder=disobey order. torture is a form of treatment. mental health poison/tranqs are more dangerous for your physical health than meth. 36,000 die from phyc drugs/y. about 8500people are murdered by firearm.
    never discriminate against someone for being labeled mental disorder/ill, they are no different than anyone else besides the label . don’t call people mentally ill