Warren
Psychology
Final Project
Due 1 .24.14
Task- Section One
(Questions A-G are answered)
There is no official percentage rate recorded of crimes committed in the U.S done so by people that are diagnosed to be mentally ill. However in the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study I found that 31% of people who had both a substance abuse disorder and a psychiatric disorder committed at least one act of violence in a year, compared with the 18% of people who committed a crime with a psychiatric disorder alone.
Most crimes committed by patients with a psychiatric disorder alone, are done so by those with Bipolar disorder or Schizophrenia. The two most common symptom overlap of the diseases is depression and substance abuse. Patients of both diseases experience the pressures of conforming to societal norms, with the expectations of staying medicated, as well as manic depressive periods, in which they are lethargic, fatigued, insomniac, have thoughts of suicide, and other negative thoughts like homicide. In most cases if a proven mentally ill patient was discovered to have violent tendencies, and discovered to be a harm to himself and or others, the government, ie. doctors, family, and hospitals could by right have them placed on medication and or admitted into a medical center for psychiatric treatment.
In the case of Jared Lee Loughner he was born in Tuscon, Arizona on September 10, 1988. He shot and killed 6 bystanders on January 8, 2011, including the 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green and wounded 14 people including the attempted murder of the U.S Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head.
On January 7, 2011, the night before the shooting, at 2:05 a.m. He left a message on a friend's voicemail after purchasing a 9mm Glock Pistol. The voicemail said, "Hey man, it's Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later.” In a MySpace post the morning of the shooting at 4:12 am, he