Question

Explain why the media and much of the general public believe that crime and the mental illness are related to each other. Is this factual? Why, or why not? Provide examples

Answer 1

No it is not factual

Whenever a violent crime occurs, one thing that happens with depressing inevitability is the accusation that the perpetrator was mentally ill.

In fairness, you can see where this comes from: a savage machete attack, say, or a seemingly random burst of deadly gunfire on a city street are clearly not the behaviour of someone “thinking straight”. And often, once the reports start pouring in, inevitably the past or present mental health of the perpetrator becomes a talking point. After all, if there’s any record they’ve sought help in the past, it must have been something to do with that, yes?

No. As countless people have pointed out over the years, the link between mental illness and violent crimes, no matter what they are, has never been clear, no matter how many people assume it to be “obvious”. It’s a frighteningly complex issue that would be impossible to do justice to in a single blogpost, but here are just a few things to consider.