What is it about mental illness that would lead such people to be involved in crime?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Possible answer: We certainly know that those with mental illness become entangled with the justice system as the text cites that somewhere between 20-60% of prison inmates have some form of mental illness. The two most common mental illnesses associated with criminality are schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder. For schizophrenia, the inability to focus on ideas or behaviors, the delusions (in particular), hallucinations, and inability to have a logical progression or relation of ideas all can increase the risk for an individual to be involved in criminal activity. Since individuals with schizophrenia, particularly severe cases, are described as being out of touch with reality, they can often behave in ways that do not fit with social norms and can be very unpredictable. For those with antisocial personality disorder, these individuals lack the development of moral order or ethics. Quite simply, these individuals do not have the ability to feel remorse or guilt for their actions. These individuals are capable of doing heinous things over their life course and persist in offending if their mental illness is not addressed. Also, this type of mental illness is incredibly stubborn to treat.