The article that I proceeded to take an interest in is an article from mental-heath-today.com. The name of the article is Bipolar Disorder and Law Enforcement. This article attempts to coorelate bipolar disorder and law enforcement. It's purpose is to differentiate bipolar disorder from antisocial personality disorder (a criminal mind), and how these two disorders get mistaken for eachother. The article states that bipolar and antisocial personality disorder can project similar actions or behaviors, but they are completely different in that bipolar disorder is a mental disorder can be treated; whereas antisocial personality disorder is more complex and almost impossible to treat. These disorders both produce aggressiveness, rage, anger, and violence which usually leads to criminal activity that's eventually reprimanded through law enforcement. The problem is that most of these "criminals" actually have bipolar disorder and should really be treated through a mental evaluation, behavioral modification, or through a controlled dose of medication as oppose to jail, where individuals with antisocial personality disorder should reside. For example, -The US Department of Justice reported in 1999 that 16% of all inmates in state and federal jails have a severe mental illness. 283,000 people with serious mental illnessess were in jail or prison - more that four times the number in state mental hospitals. The average daily number of patients in state and county psychiatric hospitals has steadily dropped from 592,853 in 1950 to 71,619 in 1994.
I believe that there is a lot of truth within this article and that these issues need to seriously be addressed. It seems as though too many individuals with mental disorders are being convicted of these crimes, but the steps to correctly evaluate and treat these individuals are being completely overlooked. These individuals are being sentenced and held in jail, when in reality, they need to be mentally evaluated and HELPED! These individuals have mental disorders that will only become worse in a criminal habitus. They deserve the opportunity to obtain professional help to actually solve the problems as opposed to encouraging and facilitating the existing problem. If we could implement programs that could differentiate these mental disorders, I believe that many of these notorious "criminals" could be helped and even prevented.
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I also wrote my letter about bipolar disorder. I think that you had a very solid letter, both grammatically and idea wise. The only thing that I think you could do to make it stronger is to check if there is a state that looks for mental disorders when it arrests criminals and see if they have a lower prison population. (I know that would be hard to do in 150 words)
ReplyDeleteGreat topic: 'criminality' meets 'illness.' and it will never be a simple matter of diagnosis and treatment.
ReplyDeleteGov. Tim clearly sees 'sex offenders' as bearers of bad genes (or bad brains--but BAD in any case), and wants them banished. This is precisely the viewpoint of Galton when he though he could make 'scientific' pictures of criminals (image on the syllabus).
Made or born? And cured by---what?