The public interest context of the VMDR

Abstract

Abstract This chapter from Vice and Psychiatric Diagnosis considers public interest and opinion regarding people with mental disorders, criminal offenders, and the mentally ill offender. After an introductory section about the concepts of cultural literacy and other ‘literacies’ (health, mental health, and crime/criminology), the chapter reviews the empirical studies of public attitudes and beliefs about various facets of the vice/mental disorder relationship. The public interest is examined from several perspectives: public attitudes about the relationships between crime and mental illness and research into stigma toward mentally ill people, criminal offenders, and mentally ill offenders. The author then examines the empirical associations between crime and mental illness as a contrast with public attitudes and beliefs. Not surprisingly, the prevailing majority of the public holds the false belief that mental illness and crime are commonly linked. This conclusion leads to the related issue about why the public holds such misconceptions. The latter question is examined through a review of the empirical literature on media portrayals of crime, criminal offenders, and people with mental illness.