Mental health and crime casestudy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Mental health and crime casestudy - Essay Example Hayley’s story is just one case study of many that victimizes the mentally challenged for being unable to constructively handle their disease and/or their afflictions. In actuality, those struggling with their mental health fall to the wayside because of the way they are treated by their communities and society, and the many factors that come with their mental health, not because of it. Our culture cannot stigmatize people like Hayley anymore, people who might otherwise be productive. Though people with mental health issues often get help and lead to productive lives, much of the time society doesn’t deal with mental disorders in a constructive manner, both in a communal sense and for the best interest of the individual. First, there is the initial problem in defining what a â€Å"mental disorder† actually is. According to Andrew E. Skodol’s book Psychopathology and Violent Crimes, this question can be traced back to Aristotle, where â€Å"confusion about the reality of a situation might provide a moral excuse for persons who acted unlawfully in response to their beliefs (Skodol, 1998).† Jeremy Coid did a study of men in U.K. prisons and the results showed that many of them tested positively for borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. Coid did not make any conclusions as to what specifically differentiated these men from their U.K. counterparts who resided in mental health centers, though he did conclude that â€Å"low socioeconomic status, family dysfunction and inadequate parenting seem to form the genesis of violent behavior (Butterfield, 1997).† The Great Britain Penal System seems to be (in comparison to their American penal system counte rpart) more understanding in nuances and distinctions of where to place people who have been convicted of crimes yet are diagnosed with