Mental Illness, Crime, and Criminal Behaviour

Question 1

How is mental illness portrayed by the media?

Angermeyer and Shulze (2001)

Answer 1

• German tabloid newspaper (Bild-Zeitung) with daily sales of 11 million copies
• Focus on spectacular events and ‘bad stories’ (murder, multiple murder, physical injury, rape, infanticide)
• Selective reporting –> perpetuating idea of a strong association between mental disorder and violence

Question 2

What is the McNaughton Rule?

Answer 2

Gave rise to the first serious attempt to modify criminal law

States that an individual is not criminally responsible if, at the time of the offence:

1. The accused did not know the nature and quality of his actions (crimes)
2. The accused did not know his actions were wrong

If these conditions are satisfies then the accused may be judged ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’

Question 3

What is diminished responsibility?

Answer 3

• Notion of ‘Diminished Responsibility” introduced in 1957 by The Homicide Act
• A defence for murder on the basis of “abnormality of the mind…as substantially impaired his mental responsibility”
• Allows a charge of murder to be ‘reduced’ to manslaughter (the unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought)

Question 4

What does The Mental Health Act 1983 refer to “mental disorder” as?

Answer 4

1. Mental illness
   - -> Depression, anxiety, schizophrenia
2. Arrested or incomplete development of the mind
   - -> Severe impairment of intelligence and social functioning (intellectual disability).
3. Psychopathic (personality) disorders
4. Any other disorder or disability of the mind

Question 5

How was The Mental Health Act revised in 2007?

Answer 5

• Abolished the various categories of mental disorder in favour of ‘any disorder or disability of the mind’
• Types of mental illness included things such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety or depression, personality disorders, eating disorders, autistic spectrum disorders and learning disabilities
• A brain disorder is not taken to be a mental disorder unless it also gives rise to disability or disorder of the mind

Question 6

Mental Illness in Prison Populations

Gunn et al (1978)

Answer 6

• Reviewed 6000 prisoners in England through questionnaires and interviews
• Around one third (cumulative) of the prison population could be regarded as a psychiatric case

Question 7

Why are rates of mental illness higher in prison populations: Alternative explanation 1

Answer 7

• Mentally ill may be more clumsy in their criminal act, making them easier to detect
• They may be easier to convict because they cannot cope with interrogation
• They may confess, under pressure, to a crime they did not commit

Question 8

Why are rates of mental illness higher in prison populations: Alternative explanation 2

Answer 8

• Individuals may offend because they are depresses
• Individuals may be depressed at the time of an offence, but the depression did not cause the offence
• Depression may be triggered by guilt after the episode

Question 9

Why are rates of mental illness higher in prison populations: Alternative Explanation 4

Answer 9

• Imprisonment for the offence may have caused the psychopathology
• It is possible that the highly aversive conditions in prisons may lead to the onset of, or exacerbation of, a pre-existing disorder