Mental Illnesses Essay
The Relationship of Mental Illness and Homicide
The reasons for individuals to take the life of another human being seem to be endless. Whether it is in self defense, revenge, a crime of opportunity, or just because the suspect wanted to know how it felt to kill, there is usually an explanation for the act. When it comes to mental illness though, that is not always the case. Some individuals with mental illnesses do not in fact know why they commit the crimes they do. Some may claim that the voices inside their head told them to kill someone. Some may not have intended to kill someone, but they did not realize their own strength. Some may even be preyed upon by other people who see weakness in them, and make them do their dirty work. …show more content…
This paper will show some of the research done on this subject as it relates to prisoners who have participated in surveys and have been evaluated by psychiatric professionals after …show more content…
Grunberg, it was reported that among 28 homicides committed between 1970 and 1975, 29 percent were found “not guilty by reason of insanity.” All were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and most were not being treated for their illness at the time the crime was committed. The authors’ conclusion was that closer follow-ups with mentally ill patients could do a lot to improve the patients welfare, as well as the communities’. A similar study done in Contra Costa County, California, by D.E. Wilcox, came to the same conclusion after reporting that among 71 convicted homicide offenders, that seven (10 percent) were diagnosed with schizophrenia. In three of the seven, there were strong prior apprehensions about dangerousness. In 2006 there were 17,034 recorded homicides in the United States; individuals with severe mental illnesses would have therefore been responsible for approximately 1,700 of them. Over the past twenty years, during which time the deinstitutionalization of patients from state mental hospitals has been aggressively pursued, there have been a total of 388,311 homicides in the United States, with individuals with severe mental illnesses thus responsible for approximately 38,000 of
The reasons for individuals to take the life of another human being seem to be endless. Whether it is in self defense, revenge, a crime of opportunity, or just because the suspect wanted to know how it felt to kill, there is usually an explanation for the act. When it comes to mental illness though, that is not always the case. Some individuals with mental illnesses do not in fact know why they commit the crimes they do. Some may claim that the voices inside their head told them to kill someone. Some may not have intended to kill someone, but they did not realize their own strength. Some may even be preyed upon by other people who see weakness in them, and make them do their dirty work. …show more content…
This paper will show some of the research done on this subject as it relates to prisoners who have participated in surveys and have been evaluated by psychiatric professionals after …show more content…
Grunberg, it was reported that among 28 homicides committed between 1970 and 1975, 29 percent were found “not guilty by reason of insanity.” All were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and most were not being treated for their illness at the time the crime was committed. The authors’ conclusion was that closer follow-ups with mentally ill patients could do a lot to improve the patients welfare, as well as the communities’. A similar study done in Contra Costa County, California, by D.E. Wilcox, came to the same conclusion after reporting that among 71 convicted homicide offenders, that seven (10 percent) were diagnosed with schizophrenia. In three of the seven, there were strong prior apprehensions about dangerousness. In 2006 there were 17,034 recorded homicides in the United States; individuals with severe mental illnesses would have therefore been responsible for approximately 1,700 of them. Over the past twenty years, during which time the deinstitutionalization of patients from state mental hospitals has been aggressively pursued, there have been a total of 388,311 homicides in the United States, with individuals with severe mental illnesses thus responsible for approximately 38,000 of