Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL Research Proposal Paper II: Relationship between Crime and Mental Illnesses January 8th, 2018 1 RESEARCH PROPOSAL 2 Relationship between Crime and Mental Illnesses The relationship between crime and mental illnesses have been often studied and was proven true through many studies and surveys. According to the federal Bureau of Statistics, 1.2 million incarcerated individuals are in jails or prisons nationwide. ("Federal Bureau of Statistics", 2006). They also two to four times the rate of the criminal on probation. Per Peterson, Kennealy, and Skeem (2014), “researchers analysed 429 crimes committed by 143 offenders with three major types of mental illness and found that 3 percent of their crimes were directly related to symptoms of major depression, 4 percent to symptoms of schizophrenia disorders and 10 percent to symptoms of bipolar disorder”. Throughout the extensive studies done, most the crime committed by mentally ill individual were influenced by other major factors such as poverty, addiction, homelessness and unemployment. With all these known facts, there are still some grey areas and insufficient data in some aspect of this topic. A Short Discussion of Why the Background Studies Are Not Sufficient There has been a long standing debate on the relationship between mental illness and crime. Despite these debates, there is insufficient background studies relating to this particular issue. According to Lay (2015), most people have been quick to make conclusions that the mentally sick people are prone to anger. However, such conclusions are based on stereotyping, and are not based on evidence and statistics. Among the general public, persons with psychological disorders are stigmatized and misunderstood (Webermann, 2017). As a result, stereotyping could be said as to one of the reason as to why there is insufficient background studies to this particular topic. It is likely that many people have made the conclusions and scholars are not actively engaged in trying to come up with more information on the same topic. Furthermore, the costs of undertaking studies have continued to rise. This rise comes at a time RESEARCH PROPOSAL 3 when people are not doing well economically. Consequently, it is difficult to undertake studies, and worse still, if studies are undertaken, there is a likelihood that they will not be very thorough. Summary of the Basic Background Information The diagnosis and treatment of mentally ill offenders have been on the rise. As the fields of neuroscience and psychology continue to evolve with the ever-changing advancements of technology and medicine, the understanding of how the human brain also evolves. Some say that the background studies of mental illness being related to criminal activity in currently insufficient in that is most cases linking the two sometimes is not proven. In other instances, criminal behaviour has been found to be linked to different levels of mental illness, but the issue is funding the treatment of these individuals where the treatment is reasonably funded and the treatment is also effective. The mentally ill are often arrested and convicted because they lack proper legal representation during their process. Most mentally ill individuals have histories of selfmedication with illicit drugs and alcohol further harming themselves and their condition. While in the prison system, these same individuals are often chastised by other inmates and prison officials, at times treatment and access to treatment is not in place. Funding for treatment programs for the mentally ill is sometimes combined into the overall operating expense of the prison system and very little is used properly for the mentally ill. Discussion of Critical Studies There are a lot of different options about what people with mental illness can or cannot understand. The understanding of what most people think is that people with mental illness are very dangerous, and that can cause them not to know right from wrong and what is considered a crime. Some of the discussion that I have found has said that a lot of people that are mentally ill RESEARCH PROPOSAL 4 have been left with untreated symptoms and which in turn makes them even more unstable. Then once they get into say jail that they still don’t have the right treatments and also get over looked so they act out. There are not a lot of discussions or research about this or it is repetitive. Analysis of Why Background Studies are Insufficient The question of mental illness and crime has been of great concern in the correctional systems, the public and also in the criminal justice system. Some of the questions that arise from this topic are, does mental illness in any way related to one’s criminal behavior. How does mental illness result in crime? Research shows that people with mental illness are more likely to commit crimes than the normal ones. People with mental illness fall into the category of people that suffer psychosis. Psychosis is linked to the violent character. Mental illness may drive the sick person to criminal and violent acts. This may result in harming oneself, a friend or even a close relative. The disorder influences one’s ability to make decisions. This means that a person suffering from mental illness is at times unable to make reasonable decisions and ends up committing crimes against himself or someone else. Another question is how substance abuse is related to crime. Substance abuse causes mental illness and inability to think reasonably. People who abuse drugs suffer from mental illness. This person has been noted to be so prone to crime. The drugs affect one's reasoning and thus ends up committing crimes. In most criminal justice systems people suffering from mental illnesses are not held accountable for their criminal acts as the actions are not intentionally committed. Being mentally defective makes a person unable to weigh his actions and determine the outcome of their criminal acts. Mentally ill people are mostly antisocial and this makes them uncontrollable, this results in unpredictable crimes from such people (Rozel & Mulvey, 2017). There is a cross- RESEARCH PROPOSAL link between mental illness and crime, offenders with this problem needs a special treatment in the criminal justice system. 5 RESEARCH PROPOSAL 6 References Federal Bureau of Statistics. (2006). Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub /pdf/ mhppji.pdf Lay, B. (2015). The relationship between mental disorder and violence. Archives of Clinical Psychiatry (São Paulo), 42(1), 31-32. Peterson, J., Kennealy, P., & Skeem, J. (2014, April). How often and how consistently do Symptoms Directly Precede Criminal Behaviour among Offenders with Mental Illness? American Psychological Association, () Webermann, A. R., & Brand, B. L. (2017). Mental illness and violent behavior: the role of dissociation. Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation, 4(1), 2. Frances, A. J. (2013, March). Prison or Treatment for the Mentally Ill. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/saving-normal/201303/prison-ortreatment-the-mentally-ill Rozel, J. S., & Mulvey, E. P. (2017). The link between mental illness and firearm violence: implications for social policy and clinical practice. Annual review of clinical psychology, 13, 445-469 RESEARCH PROPOSAL 7
Purchase answer to see full attachment