Ample research has been conducted in the U.K. to establish the relationship between criminal activities with mental disorder. Some of the papers establish a relationship with specific forms of crime while most indicate limited relationship between the two. Research shows limited possibility of mentally disordered people involvement in crime but rather victimization to such. In a U.K. based population study, it was established that most mentally ill people are more likely to be victimized for crime they did not commit than getting involved in crime. The study established that 15% of mentally ill people are likely to be victimized for crime involvement.
Mentally ill tend to involve themselves with criminal activities not necessarily because of their state of mind but due to other factors. Such factors include poverty, drugs involvement, unemployment, debt, and other social pressures. The rate of crime committed by people out of sheer insanity is relatively low. Few studies have linked crime perpetration with symptoms of mental health problems. Most mentally ill criminal offenders are observed to have repeatedly committed crime unrelated to their mental disorder. For example, a person may be experiencing hallucinations during the day. Later in the evening, he gets involved in a fight when he is not hallucinating. Although, he is suffering from a mental disorder, there exists no relation between the crime and the mental disorder problem. Study shows little direct relationship between crime and acute mental disorder…
