[DanaC]

Originally Posted by MatthewS

I find this topic generally quite interesting. Care to give some figures that show mentally ill people are less likely to commit criminal offences then the mentally stable?

I didn't say less likely to commit criminal offences. It's the equating of mental illness with violence that is off-kilter.

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Although violent episodes are commonly perpetrated against the mentally ill, many of these individuals do not report the events to the police for fear of not being taken seriously — or believed, new research suggests.

A study from the United Kingdom showed that patients with severe mental illness (SMI) were 3 to 7 times more likely to be victims of violent crime and twice as likely to be victims of household crimes, such as burglaries, compared with the general population.

However, one third of the study participants with SMI did not report any of the crimes to a formal agency of any type.

"They found similar rates of violence against those with severe mental illness in the States. And this has also been found in Europe, Malaysia, and others. It really is international," said Dr. Khalifeh.

"We think the public health impact of these people being victims is greater than the public health impact of them being aggressors. And we need to make that clearer."

Results showed that the patients with SMI were significantly more likely to be the victim of violent crime than were their healthy peers. In addition, 20.2% of the women with SMI vs 2.7% of the women without SMI had violent crimes perpetrated against them (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 6.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.9 - 15.0).

For the men, 19.2 of those with SMI and 4.7% of those without were victims of this type of crime (AOR, 3.2; 95% CI, 1.6 - 6.8).

All participants with SI were also at a higher risk for household crime than were their healthy peers (21.6% vs 8.8%; AOR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.2 - 2.8). There were no differences in household crimes between the sexes.

"We looked at both burglaries and people who are invited into your home and then walk away with your property," explained Dr. Khalifeh.

"Although they were at high risk for burglaries, people with mental illness were at a much higher risk for this latter occurrence. It was very much an exploitative experience. A lot of patients would say, 'I knew inviting that person home was a risk, but I was so isolated that I felt I had to take my chances,' " she said.

Not only are they more likely to be victims because of their mental state, they are also less likely to be able to successfully access the judicial system or gain redress for the same reason:

In fact, 35% of those with SMI did not disclose their victimization from any crime to the police or to healthcare professionals. Reasons given for this included not wanting to face disbelief or being blamed, and fear of being stigmatized.

Among the quotes gathered from these victimized participants, one woman reported that the police told her "they wouldn't take my case to court because I was a mental health person" and an unreliable witness.

"In India, I think stigma is even more magnetized than in the States, as it is in many countries as well. The problem is that people all over often say that mentally ill patients are violent," said Dr. Jana.

"But statistics in my country show that 10 times more violence is committed by people who are not mentally ill. And those who are mentally ill are more often the victims than the perpetrators. I cannot stress enough that that information needs to be pushed even more — that violence is not synonymous with mental illness," he said.

From here: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/807387


Also some interesting stuff here:

http://depts.washington.edu/mhreport/facts_violence.php

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1525086/