But we still hear claims that there is no relationship between mental illness and crime or violence. We hear this despite numerous studies, including several population-based studies, that have shown time and time again that there is indeed a relationship between mental disorder and crime. The latest issue of Psychiatric Services provides the latest evidence:
Objective:Bipolar disorder is a severe and prevalent psychiatric disease. Poor outcomes include a high frequency of criminal acts, imprisonments, and repeat offenses. This critical review of the international literature examined several aspects of the complex relationship between individuals with bipolar disorder and the criminal justice system: risk factors for criminal acts, features of bipolar patients' incarceration, and their postrelease trajectories.
Methods:Publications were obtained from the PubMed and Google Scholar electronic databases by using the following MeSH headings: prison, forensic psychiatry, criminal law, crime, and bipolar disorder.
Results:Among patients with bipolar disorder, the frequency of violent criminal acts is higher than in the general population (odds ratio [OR]=2.8, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.8-4.3). The frequency is higher among patients with bipolar disorder and a comorbid substance use disorder than among those without either disorder (OR=10.1, CI=5.3-19.2). As a result, the prevalence of bipolar disorder among prisoners is high (2%-7%). In prison, patients' bipolar disorder symptoms can complicate their relationship with prison administrators, leading to an increased risk of multiple incarcerations. Moreover, the risk of suicide increases for these prisoners.
Criminal acts are common among patients with bipolar disorder and are often associated with problems such as addiction.Conclusions:
I'm not surprised at all by the study, but I am very surprised to read that "we still hear claims that there is no relationship between mental illness and crime or violence." I, for one, have never heard such an assertion. Where have you heard those claims?
- Victor
A very quick search turned up this one, admittedly a few years old but it strikes me as typical:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/12/17/1346201/are-people-with-mental-illnesses-more-prone-to-violence/
One problem here is conflating "bipolar disorder" and "mental illness." The study you cite here concerns only bipolar disorder, not mental illness generally. It says nothing, for example, about whether people with depression or other forms of mental illness are more prone to violence.
The ThinkProgress article does not claim "there is no relationship between mental illness and crime or violence," only that "the mentally ill are no more prone to violence than the general population." It sounds like a nitpicking distinction, but it's an important one. Mental illness may be a factor in why people commit crimes, and the article does not claim otherwise.
It is true that bipolar disorder is just one form of mental illness, yet numerous studies have found that a variety of mental disorders, including schizophrenia and affective disorders, are associated with crime and violence. Here's just one citation:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21359532
And I don't know what to make of the statement that "there is no relationship between mental illness and crime and violence" while saying in the same breath that "the mentally ill are no more prone to violence than the general population" when it's undisputed that substance abuse is one of the largest risk factors for violence and the rates of substance abuse are far higher among those with mental illness than in the general population.