“About 80% of Americans believe that mentally ill people are prone to violence” (Lilienfeld, Lynn ,Ruscio, Beyerstein, 74). The myth linking mental illness and violence arises from the faulty representation of mentally ill people in movies and television shows. Due to the popularity of these shows, the myth sinks in society as a true representation of mental illness. Yet the common myth about mental illness and violence don’t square with the continuous amount of the research evidence.
When people talk about this perception of mental illness, it usually covers a broad range of disorders, including alcoholism, cocaine dependence, schizophrenia, depression, and etc. With an increase in mass murders and other horrific violence, people began …show more content…
In fact, people with schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence. This is probably because of their weakened mental capacity renders them vulnerable to attacks by others. However, patients with “command hallucinations” are indeed more likely to commit violent …show more content…
One study example was conducted by Steadman HJ, Mulvey EP, Monahan J, Robbins PC, Appelbaum PS, Grisso T, Roth LH, Silver E. in May 1998 titled “Violence by people discharged from acute psychiatric inpatient facilities and by others in the same neighborhoods”. Two groups of people were compared, those who had recently been discharged from a mental hospital and those in the same neighborhood who had not. The groups were composed of 1,136 male and female patients aged 18-40 in comparison with 519 people living in the same neighborhood as the ex-patients. They were interviewed about violence in the 10 weeks following their discharge for the first group or just in the past 10 weeks for the control group. The following concusions were drawn :No significant difference in rates of violence between the control group and the discharged patients who did not show signs of substance abuse; however, substance abuse raised rates of violence in both groups, and slightly more prevalent in the
When people talk about this perception of mental illness, it usually covers a broad range of disorders, including alcoholism, cocaine dependence, schizophrenia, depression, and etc. With an increase in mass murders and other horrific violence, people began …show more content…
In fact, people with schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence. This is probably because of their weakened mental capacity renders them vulnerable to attacks by others. However, patients with “command hallucinations” are indeed more likely to commit violent …show more content…
One study example was conducted by Steadman HJ, Mulvey EP, Monahan J, Robbins PC, Appelbaum PS, Grisso T, Roth LH, Silver E. in May 1998 titled “Violence by people discharged from acute psychiatric inpatient facilities and by others in the same neighborhoods”. Two groups of people were compared, those who had recently been discharged from a mental hospital and those in the same neighborhood who had not. The groups were composed of 1,136 male and female patients aged 18-40 in comparison with 519 people living in the same neighborhood as the ex-patients. They were interviewed about violence in the 10 weeks following their discharge for the first group or just in the past 10 weeks for the control group. The following concusions were drawn :No significant difference in rates of violence between the control group and the discharged patients who did not show signs of substance abuse; however, substance abuse raised rates of violence in both groups, and slightly more prevalent in the