Mental Disorder and Crime

Question 1

What did Star (1955) characterise the public image of mental illness as?

Answer 1

Stigma is a big problem for those with mental illness

Question 2

How were the mentally ill classified in a study by Nunnally (1991)

Answer 2

Dangerous, dirty, unpredictable and worthless

Question 3

What did Angermeyer and Matschinger (2005) say about public health literacy on mental illness?

Answer 3

It can help improve attitudes towards mentally ill people

Question 4

What became an issue with public health literacy using biological reasons for MI?

Answer 4

It caused people to distance themselves from MI people as they saw it as a disease - especially schizophrenia

Question 5

What things are people with MI least likely to do

Answer 5

Find a job
Long-term relationship
Live in decent housing
Be socially included in mainstream society
(most likely) Substance misuse
(most likely) Impede seeking help/delaying treatment

Question 6

What was found when students underwent a programme called The Guide in a study by Milin et al?

Answer 6

Showed increased knowing in MI and decreased stigma
Effect isn’t that strong
Controls got worse

Question 7

What were the 6 domains to the KAMHs measure in Simkiss, Gray and Snowden’s study?

Answer 7

Self stigma
Knowledge
Stigma to others
Anticipated Stigma
Good mental health behaviours
Help-seeking/disclosure

Question 8

What are the 4 methods of investigating mental illness and violence?

Answer 8

Examine no. people w/ psych illness in prison
Examine record of patients w/ and w/out psych illness and see levels of violence in the past
Examine community and see prop. of people who became violent AND Psychotic
Examine discharged patients from hospital and examine crime rates

Question 9

What are the issues with examining people in prison with psychotic illness and comparing it to control pop?

Answer 9

Psych illness is over-represented in prison
Violence often used to help define MI
ppl with MI more likely to be in prison
People with MI may be detained longer
Likely to have major diff to control pop e.g age and social class

Question 10

What are the issues with examining a community sample and seeing proportion of those with psychotic illness and violence?

Answer 10

Violence used to help define MI
Often cross-section = not causal
problems with social drift, substance misuse etc

Question 11

What are the issues with examining discharged patients from hospital and examining crime rates?

Answer 11

Now looking at who diff pop - hospitalised vs imprisoned
Releasing ‘dangerous’ people - ethics
Confounds - social drift etc

Question 12

Which population of patients does violence rates shoot up and why?

Answer 12

Involuntary patients - going against their will most likely because they are threat to others and themselves

Question 13

What 5 confounds could affect rates of violence in mentally ill people?

Answer 13

Age, gender, social class, institutionalisation, substance misuse, social drift/problems

Question 14

What did Monahan (1983) initially say about the relationship between mental illness and violence and what did they then change their mind to say? (1993)

Answer 14

1983 - MI does not cause crime
1993 - When you consider drift in social class and MI causing them to go into institutions, you will find a relationship between crime and MI

Question 15

What did Bonta et al’s study say about mental illness predicting recidivism?

Answer 15

Appears to be no obvious role
Previous criminal history still is the biggest predictor of recidivism regardless of MI

Question 16

What relationship is shown between schizophrenia and violence as demonstrated by Harris et al and the VRAG?

Answer 16

Schizophrenia is actually a protective factor

Question 17

What did Areseneault et al (2000) find in their study of violence and MI in a birth cohort in Dunedin, NZ?

Answer 17

Substance misuse increases chance of offending
People with schizo-spectrum disorder 2.5 more likely to be violent
BUT most cases due to an excessive perception of threat - possible delusions

Question 18

Which two categories of delusions found elevated rates of violence and weapon use in Link et al’s study?

Answer 18

People wish to do you harm
Thought put in your head

Question 19

What conclusion(s) were made in Applebaum et al’s study on delusions and predicting violence?

Answer 19

Delusions (including threat/control override) don’t predict higher rates violence in recently discharged patients

Question 19

What could possibly cause the difference in conclusions between Applebaum and Link?

Answer 19

Retrospective/Prospective
Applebaum had stricter criterion for delusions

Question 20

What did Ullrich’s study find about temporal proximity and predicting violence?

Answer 20

Several specific delusions (‘being spied on’ and thought insertions) and temporal proximity had an association with violence

Question 21

Why did temporal proximity have this affect?

Answer 21

Caused an ‘angry affect’ and this mediated the violence indirectly

Question 22

What did Mcneil’s study find about command hallucinations and violence

Answer 22

Positive association between violent content command hallucinations and pre-admission violence.
BUT
This was lost after adjustment for severity of symptoms

Question 23

What were the results from Roger, Gray and Snowden’s (2022) study on violent content command hallucinations and violence from the MacArthur Violence Risk Study Data?

Answer 23

Of the 199 that had a violent incident over 1 year , 44.4% of them had violent content hallucinations and 23.9% of them had non-violent hallucinations

Question 24

What mediating factor did Roger,Gray and Snowden look at for violent-content hallucinations and violence?

Answer 24

How recently they heard the command hallucination
And
If they had to obey the voice

Question 25

Which combinations of the mediating factors for violent-content command hallucinations most predicted violence?

Answer 25

Have to obey and recent (57%)
Have to obey but not recent (50%)