PSYCHOLOGY

Are people with mental disorders more likely to commit criminal acts?

Psychology

Introduction

'Violence', unless otherwise stated would refer to the physical violence acts against other people, as acts of violence are the utmost determinants of discrimination and social stigma and for the most part fear inducing for the society. The phrase 'mental disorder' would be reticent for the disorders that are not linked with substances, normally the main mental illnesses like depression or schizophrenia. Violence's main determinants persist on being the economic and socio economic factors. However, violence's major determinant is substance abuse and therefore it's a fact that generally people are confused that whether violence incidents within the context of a coexisting mental disorder or not. People overstress both their own personal risks and the strength of the link amid violence and mental disorder. Lastly, not much is known regarding violence's social contextual determinants, although studies prop up the premise that people with mental disorder are more likely to be victims of violence rather than being probable of committing criminal acts or being the violence perpetrators. This paper discusses whether people with mental disorders more likely to commit criminal acts or not. In addition to this, the paper giver incidents and reviews of literature regarding patients having mental disorders within clinical settings in which violence, aggressive and criminal activities took place.

Discussion

With the passage of time, there appears to have been a growing convergence of violence and mental disorder within the everyday clinical practices. From the former assertions denying the capability of professionals of mental health of predicting violence, there has been mounting eagerness on the part of a number of professionals of mental health for managing and predicting acts of violence. In the company of the introduction of actuarial tools of risk assessment, assessments of risk of violence are progressively more propped up as the fundamental skills of mental health: anticipated of practitioners of mental health, prized within the correctional setting and the courts of law, and the vital characteristics of the clinical management that is socially responsible (Monahan, et.al, 2001, Pp. 41; Mullen, 1997, Pp. 3-11).

A number of psychiatrists, especially the ones who are within the acute care or emergency settings have reported actual incidents of their lives entailing violent behaviours amongst the people with mental disorders. For instance, within Canada in which the extent of violence within the people of the society is quite low as compared to rest of the world, but preponderance of the psychiatrists are engaged in the treatment and management of behaviours that are violent, and half of which have reported of being assaulted by their patients at least once in their lives (Stuart, 2003, Pp. 121-124). Nonetheless, violence related clinical experiences are not the couriers of the actions of the preponderance of people with mental disorders. Within the psychiatry practice, the social changes, specifically the extensive implementation of the acuteness for legislation of civil commitment implies that merely those individual who have the greatest violence risk get treated within the acute care ...