Pennington Psychopathology

Each day, a frighteningly large number of people with mental illness run through the criminal justice system across the nation. Most prisoners have some sort of mental illness and many defendants are never properly diagnosed. Before arriving in the criminal justice system, these individuals have frequently fallen through the “safety net” of families, hospitals and community-based treatment providers. Once they reach the courts, defendants with mental illness pose major contests for judges. Given these truths —judges find that in many cases the safest choice is to sentence mentally ill offenders to jail. However, Pennington’s perspective on the development of psychopathology contests a different outcome. He believes if a criminal is diagnosed …show more content…
Pennington discusses criminal justice cases involving the mentally ill being reduced by attacking the core issue early on. He justifies this by stating “Brains grow into mental illness.” This quotes shows that psychopathology isn’t inborn. It is growing developmentally. Research shows most criminals who are diagnosed with mental illness attain it through extreme childhood environments. Pennington states “Environment causes cognitive shifts.” Research has found most criminals with mental illnesses did not receive love and affection when they were young; two of the key elements in shaping your cognitive perception. As a child they lacked attention from the nearby adults. As a result, when they grew up they find committing crimes eases their pain and fills the missing holes. One way Pennington suggests attacking this problem is to “Create controlled environments specifically for children.” Such as surrounding children with caring and warm people and providing, as Pennington states “a normalized environment.” This can really help combat criminals in the future committing crimes due to mental illnesses by ensuring their brain develops in a healthy state. Pennington also states “All psychopathology is developmental and brains are dependent on their environment” This explains if the environment you’re living in is not …show more content…
Judges typically lack both the tools necessary to perform significant assessments and the connections with mental health service providers essential to know what kinds of treatment options are available. There is a consensus that criminal defendants with mental illness pose a major problem for the courts. I believe every person should be in a healthy state before submitting to their respective consequence. Therefore, I absolutely and undoubtedly agree with Pennington that a criminal with a mental illness should not be guilty and does not deserve to be put in an isolated prison/jail. Instead, they should have the opportunity to be able to receive the help they need and potentially recover back to a healthy