Mental Illness And Crime Essay

Mental disorders and crime are frequently associated to each other due to the amount of offenders that are convicted of crimes. When offenders commit a crime sometimes it is due to the fact that they suffer from a mental illness. Mental illness is correlated to the term crime and it is important because one must understand the reason as to why offenders do what they do and under what state one was when committing such crimes.
Mental illness is a diagnosable disturbance to a person’s emotional ability or awareness that can lead to a person to experience interactions and social environments differently from others (Miller et al., 2015, pg. 60). Usually mental illnesses are difficult to diagnose and or treat; mental illnesses are from a scale of minor to major. According to Miller and colleagues (2015), the two most common illnesses within mental disorders associated with criminal behavior is schizophrenia and anti-social behavior. People that suffer from schizophrenia show symptoms of hallucinations and delusions which cause them to engage in criminal or insane actions. Anti-social behavior offenders differ from patients with schizophrenia from that offender with anti-social behaviors experience a lack of consciences, moral and ethical development (Miller et al., 2015, pg. 60). According to, “Mental disorder and
When people suffer from a mental illness they should be given the mental treatment they deserve and not be thrown in jail with the general population. The lack of mental health centers can be one of the reasons as to why prisons have high percentages of offenders with mental capacities; mental health resources may help prevent future crimes. Prisons seems to have turned into the dumping ground for people with mental disorders and that should not be the case because authorities need to evaluate and consider the offender’s health