Bridgewalker, what do you mean? I don't by any means believe that all mentally ill people are criminals, but are you saying that mental illness never contributes to criminal behavior?
Pretty much, yeah. Well, not that it never contributes, but that it does not contribute enough to make a difference, and that it may well be that some effects of mental illness work to lessen violence by mentally ill people whereas in others violent endencies may be magnified. In any case, the mentally ill, as a group, are probably no more violent than the general public, although may be slightly less violent and they may be slightly more violent.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1525086Definitive statements are difficult to make and it is equally possible to find recent literature supporting the conclusions that the mentally ill are no more violent, they are as violent, or they are more violent than their nonmentally ill counterparts (14). Prior to 1980, the dominant view was that the mentally ill were no more, and often less likely to be violent. Crime and violence in the mentally ill were associated with the same criminogenic factors thought to determine crime and violence in anyone else: factors such as gender, age, poverty, or substance abuse. Any elevation in rates of crime or violence among mentally ill samples was attributed to the excess of these factors. When they were statistically controlled, the rates often equalized. However, although the main risk factors for violence still remain being young, male, single, or of lower socio-economic status, several more recent studies have reported a modest association between mental illness and violence, even when these elements have been controlled (1-2,7,13-16).
Oh, and why are you talking so much?
(Firefly-bashing joke.)
See sig.
