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Very detailed essay plan notes for "Offenders commit crime because they are mentally ill." $4.79   Add to cart

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Very detailed essay plan notes for "Offenders commit crime because they are mentally ill."

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Very detailed essay plan, with study details and critical appraisal. For seen exam question "offenders commit crimes because they are mentally ill."

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  • January 3, 2014
  • 5
  • 2010/2011
  • Essay
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ESSAY QUESTION: Offenders commit crimes because they are mentally ill
Two types of evidence:

1. Prevalence of mental illness in criminal populations
2. Prevalence of crime in psychiatric populations



1. Prevalence of mental illness in criminal populations

Gunn et al. (1978)

 Assessed the psychiatric status of a sample of 600 offenders.
 One in five had a marked or severe psychiatric condition - mostly depressed / anxiety (could
be a reaction to imprisonment)
 Drugs and alcohol addiction quite high
 Seldom SZ
 Old study

Taylor (1966)

 2/3 of prisoners serving life sentences were psychiatrically disturbed
 Old study

Wallace et al. (1998):

 Investigated those convicted in the higher courts of Victoria, Australia, between 1993-1995
 Looked at their psychiatric histories
 Prior psychiatric contact found in 25% of offenders, mainly personality disorders / substance
abuse
 Conclude the increased offending in SZ / affective illnesses is modest & may be mediated by
substance misuse.
 Men with SZ who also had a record of substance misuse were over 8 x more likely to appear
among violent offenders and 4 x more likely to be convicted of homicide than those without
comorbid substance abuse
 The case register may give a selected / potentially skewed sample of those with affective
disorders, personality disorders and substance misuse disorders.

Copeland et al. (2007):

 Large community based sample of youths
 About 1/3 met criteria for mental disorders at one or more of the 3 childhood assessment
points
 About 1/3 of the population was arrested in young adulthood (16-21 aged)
 Within this arrested sample, ½ of males and under ½ females met criteria for mental disorders
assessment points before 17
 Not causal
 Many of the youths with mental disorders as children did not offend

,  Found emotional disorders like depression were less relevant to later offending than
behaviour disorders or substance use.
 But adolescent emotional disorders comorbid with substance use is by far the greatest risk of
future adult offending.
 Copeland et al conclude that mental disorders offer only one possible path to later criminality
and it does not appear to be the most frequently followed path.

Schizophrenia

Spry (1984)

 Reviewed the evidence and noted that the incidence of SZ in offender populations is around
1%, unless looking at prisoners referred for psychiatric treatment or for violent serious
offences

Taylor (1985):

 In 1/5 of cases, psychiatric symptoms played a role in the offence. When environmental
factors are taken into consideration the direct and indirect consequences of psychosis - over
80% of offences by the psychotic are not attributable to their illness

Depression

Ritakallio et al. (2005)

 50,599 (v large sample) Finish adolescents
 Surveyed for delinquent behaviour and depression
 BDI but suicide ideation removed for ethical reasons – too young sample
 Self report of delinquent behaviour
 Representative sample - urban and rural municipalities of different sizes
 Fulfils a need for research in general population - only 10% of offenders are incarcerated yet
most research looks at incarcerated
 Delinquency and depression were related
 Risk of depression increased with more delinquent behaviour
 Probably under-assessment as don’t want to admit to delinquency in school setting - self
report in front of teachers - probably thought teachers would read

Weisner (2003):

 Longitudinal - 4 waves
 1,218 males and females - few other studies have focused on gender differences
 Relationship between delinquency and depression
 90% sample retention - v. Good
 In boys, limited results - the association was uni-directional - high levels of delinquency @
Time 3 predicted high depression, but small effect
 In girls, larger but still modest effects, bi-directional. High delinquency @ T 1 & T3 predicted
high subsequent depression, high depression @ T1 predicted high subsequent delinquency
 Circular - due to gender socialisation - not allowed to be delinquent - so shame and guilt and
depression
 Limitations: all suburban schools, middle class Caucasian

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