Examining the Relationship between Mental Illness and Criminal Offending

The relationship between criminal records and mental health is a complex issue that has been widely researched. Studies suggest that individuals with a history of mental illness are more likely to engage in violent offending. This essay argues that regions and nations with high rates of mental illness are more vulnerable to the risk of violent offending.

Essay- “Are people with
mental health problems at
increased risk of violent
offending? Discuss.”

Table of Contents
Topic- “Are people with mental health problems at increased risk of violent offending. Discuss.”
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REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

Topic- “Are people with mental health problems at increased risk of violent
offending. Discuss.”
Violence and harm to others is caused by one or more individuals due to certain traumatic
conditions of their mind or due to sudden outbreak of emotions which cannot be controlled. A
healthy person is the one who has sound mind and sound body (Khalifeh and et. al., 2015). The
presence of a healthy body with no ailments and life threatening diseases is supportive in healthy
living when mental conditions are balanced. In this essay, an elaborative discussion is produced
with regards to increase in the risk of violent offending in case of individuals who are mentally
ill. There have been various studies and researches directed in this area to detect the prevalence
of mental disorders when getting convicted for outrageous crimes and injuries to innocent
people.
Crime is a kind of action which is against the law. The inclusion or violence and brutal
harm to the victim leads to development of cases which are categorised as criminal violence.
There is use of certain element which threatens the victim in violent crimes (van Dorsselaer and
et. al., 2014). For instance, murders, rape, attempt for murders, kidnapping, torturing, etc. are
some of the violent crimes which prevail in the society since ages. The intensity of these crimes
has risen to a great extent with difference in brutality. The psychological state of a person plays a
vital role in deciding the nature of crime. For instance, a victim accused for murdering her rapist
is said to have committed a crime in self-defence.
On the other hand, taking another example in which a person has committed 10 murders
just for the psychological solace. This kind of violent crimes are categorised as acts which are
intended to cause an injury. It is quite important to understand the mental state of such a person
who like causing injuries to innocent people without any reason. Violent offending is a kind of
subset for violent behaviours (Stuart, 2003). The aggression accumulated by a person due to
certain situations or circumstances is transformed into violent acts. Hence, this kind of acts are
termed as violent offending. Short and et. al. (2012) stated that violence is directly proportional
to aggression which requires treatment in stipulated time. As per the legal codes, violent
offending is referred to violent actions which contravene or breach the legislations and rules.
Various researchers have proposed in their findings that there is great link of mental disorders
and violent offending.
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Mental health depicts the stability of an individual in terms of psychological well-being.
There are several types of mental illness which are largely popular when it comes to violent
offending (Fazel and Seewald, 2012). These include schizophrenia, personality disorders, severe
hostility especially in terms of crime, individuals with very high aggression levels, etc. Every
individual portrays certain behaviour according to the surroundings they are subjected to. For
instance: A young boy is kidnapped and involved in drugs racket. He is given drugs and
medicines which are so impactive that without several dose a person cannot control his/her
emotions. The young boy who was bought up in such a criminal atmosphere has grown into an
adult who kills people when they show opposition or rebellious nature. This determines that
mental health was largely affected and it flamed a spark for violent offending that led to
occurrence of different crimes.
Majorly violent offending is a result of unresolved frustration and long term aggression
which comes out in the form of criminal activity. Flynn, Rodway and Appleby (2013) proposed a
study that was targeted to identify and estimate the number of cases which depicted the
prevalence of mental illness and commitment of violent offending. In the period of 12 months,
they examined the surveys of 2004 specific to England and Wales. It was accounted through this
study that amongst the collected data, about 5% individuals were in contact with services for
mental health. On the other hand, individuals with different mental disorders reached to 41%.
this figure was amongst 5,966 individuals accused and sentenced for very serious violent
offending.
The individuals suffering from mental disorders are quite vulnerable. Their lack of
exposure to proper health and social care services often leads to development of negative impact
over their mental health. According to Ogloff and et. al. (2015), risk of violent offending
increases when a person is suffering from mental illness and portrays anti-social behaviour. In
this study, about 130 male offenders were found to have had contacted the mental health services
of Australia. There were different types of criminals that had either one particular mental illness
or a co-occurring one. The findings of Ogloff and et. al. (2015), enlightens the fact that there is
greater probability of individuals to commit a violent crime when suffering from one or more
mental disorders as compared to those who have personality problems.
Torok and et. al. (2015) surveyed over three hundred communities that had individuals
who were using injected drugs. This research was conducted to examine the correlation of this
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kind of behaviour with violent offending. The proposed research had findings depicting about
one third of the individuals (34%) had committed violent crimes. However, 24% were never
violent in their entire drug cycle. This drastic difference in figures suggests that individuals that
are frequently under the influence of drugs and medications for relieving their aggression are
more vulnerable to violent offending as compared to the ones that have not used drugs from a
long time. Entire behaviour and set of actions initiated by a person is controlled by individual's
mind. If mental state is not in accordance with the bodily warnings then severe fluctuations are
witnessed in behaviour.
Crime records and surveys generated by government and different health organisations
are one of the primary sources of information that are helpful supporting the argument. The risk
of violent offending increases when a person suffers from certain type of mental health problem
(Torok and et. al., 2015). For instance taking the case of a schizophrenia patient. The amount of
understanding is quite less in these individuals when the disorder is at its extreme. Violent
behaviour and criminal activities are potential outcomes of this mental disorder. The person had
harmed his mother and father with a knife due to continuous experience of danger or threat. This
kind of mental condition makes an individual feel that he/she is in continuous danger from all the
social elements that surround them (DeHart and et. al., 2014).
Through this example, it is quite clear that aggressive behaviour is sometimes an outcome
of mental illness. The cause of a violent crime is quite essential to understand so that necessary
measures and rehabilitation can take place in the near future for similar cases. Schizophrenic
patients often portray anti social and violent behaviours which is also one of the major causes for
violent offending. Khalifeh and et. al. (2015) conducted a research which was aimed for
assessing the impact of crime on the general population and amongst individuals that suffered
from mental illness at an extreme level. There were about 361 patients with psychiatric
conditions under scrutiny and 3138 individuals were selected from the general population. From
this research conducted by Khalifeh and et. al. (2015), it was clear that individuals with severe
mental illness were more vulnerable to the risk of crime and violent offending. This information
quite easily supports the fact that mentally unhealthy individuals especially the ones with
disorders are more probable to commit a violent crime.
Considering the article produced by Peterson and et. al. (2014), 143 offenders were
examined with help of interviews and recordings of previous interviewing conversations. This
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study proposed that early symptoms were majorly responsible for committing the crimes at
initial level. The number of crimes committed by these individuals were about 429 which fell
under the specific coded crimes. Amongst these about 4% were a result of psychosis and 10%
were a significant outcome of bipolar disorder. These findings from Peterson and et. al. (2014)
depict that when initial symptoms go unrecognised then vulnerability transforms into much
worse. Hence, it is important for respective communities and societies to develop programs and
rehabilitation centres that help the individuals suffering from mental health problems.
Consequently, the risk of violent offending shall decrease.
The research review produced by Varshney and et. al. (2017), was directed in
understanding the relationship established between violence and mental illness. The study was
quite descriptive and included findings from different research works by previous authors. From
this exploration, it was devised that mental illness is often transformed into violent offending.
The serious implications of this kind of transformation is experienced by the general population
in terms of traumatic atmosphere and deaths of innocent individuals due to violent acts. Abuse
and antipsychotics have played the role of substantial support for the build up of this
relationship. On the other hand, severe challenges are faced by public health services because it
becomes quite difficult to evaluate and control the aggressive behaviour which is portrayed by
individuals suffering from mental illness (Oram and et. al., 2013).
Fazel and Seewald (2012) had developed a research review which presented the meta-
regression analysis of about 33,588 prisoners worlwide. These prisoners were suffering from
severe mental illness. The results of this research were that about 3.6% male individuals were
suffering from psychosis and 3.9% females suffered from the same illness. This data was
collected from 24 countries which estimated to be a large amount of evidence to prove that
mental health problems are directly correlated with the violent offending. Through the findings
of this research, the authors have suggested that high levels of psychiatric morbidity has been
prevalent since past few decades.
Victimisation is also a term which is used for relating to individuals that are sentenced for
violent offending in serious violent crimes (Raine, 2013). These people are victimised for having
mental illness which is a type of disability. The early identification of substance abuse and
proper treatment helps in managing the symptoms and outcomes of mental disorders. However,
Stuart (2003) proposed a paper which signified that greater attention and concentration should be
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provided on the diagnostic procedure and managerial intervention provided to a patient of mental
illness. Often the individuals providing intervention take advantage of mental unhealthy state of
respective patient which creates internal aggression and sense of danger amongst patients. This
type of substance abuse enforces patients to take criminal support and get directed towards
violent offending (Rogers and Pilgrim, 2014).
Places with large number of prisoner populations require high amount of supervision that
helps in reducing the proportions of seriously violent offense. The physical and emotional state
of the person who is accused of violent offending has to be judged and evaluated for managing
their violent behaviour (DeHart and et. al., 2014). Despite of several risk assessment tools, there
is increasing risk of this kind of criminal activities amongst people of mental health issues
because of no proper clinical management.
There have been lot of indications acquired from the findings of researches and review
produced during the development of this essay. From these findings, it is inferred that mental
illness makes an individual loose his/her control over actions and behaviour. This directly relates
to the development of aggression and frustration amongst individuals. Violent offending and
violent crimes are similar in some context (Flynn, Rodway and Appleby, 2013). The risk of
violent offending is more in individuals that are suffering from certain type of mental health
problem like schizophrenia, bipolar disease, depression, etc. The statistics of various researches
have enlightened the fact that serious mental illness whose symptoms had been ignored in the
long run were major causes of commitment of crimes. This reflects that prevalence of disorders
results in more number of violent offending as compared to the criminal records of individuals
belonging to general population. Henceforth, through this essay, it is concluded that regions and
nations that have high rate of occurrence of mental illness are more vulnerable to the risk of
violent offending.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
DeHart, D. & et. al. (2014). Life history models of female offending the roles of serious mental
illness and trauma in women’s pathways to jail. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 38(1),
138-151.
Flynn, S., Rodway, C. & Appleby, L. (2013). Serious Violence by People With Mental Illness,
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1, Online ISSN: 1552-6518.
Khalifeh, H. & et. al. (2015). Violent and non-violent crime against adults with severe mental
illness, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 206 (4), pp- 275- 282.
Oram, S. & et. al. (2013). Prevalence of experiences of domestic violence among psychiatric
patients: systematic review. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 202(2), 94-99.
Raine, A. (2013). The psychopathology of crime: Criminal behavior as a clinical disorder.
Elsevier.
Rogers, A., & Pilgrim, D. (2014). A sociology of mental health and illness. McGraw-Hill
Education (UK).
Stuart, H. (2003). Violence and mental illness: an overview, World Psychiatry, 2(2), pp- 121-
124.
van Dorsselaer, S., & et. al. (2014). The association between common mental disorders and
violence: to what extent is it influenced by prior victimization, negative life events and low
levels of social support?, Psychological Medicine, 44(7), pp 1485- 1498.
Article 1:
Ogloff, J. R. & et. al. (2015). Co-occurring mental illness, substance use disorders, and antisocial
personality disorder among clients of forensic mental health services. Psychiatric
rehabilitation journal, 38(1), 16.
Article 2:
Varshney & et. al. (2017). Violence and mental illness: what is the true story?, Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health, 70(3).
Article 3:
Peterson & et. al. (2014). How often and how consistently do symptoms directly precede
criminal behaviour among offenders with mental illness?, Law and Human Behaviour,
38(5), pp- 439 – 449.
Article 4:
Torok, M. & et. al. (2015). The association of early‐life and substance use risks to violent
offending among injecting drug users. Drug and alcohol review, 34(1), 10-17.
Article 5:
Fazel, S. & Seewald, K. (2012). Severe mental illness in 33 588 prisoners worldwide: systematic
review and meta-regression analysis, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 200, pp- 364-373.
Online
Short, V. & et. al. (2012). Mental Illness, Personality Disorder and Violence: A Scoping Review.
Available Through:<http://www.ohrn.nhs.uk/OHRNResearch/MIviolence.pdf>. [Accessed
on 19th June, 2017].
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