Evaluation of Mental Health and Violence.

(ROUGH DRAFT)
Blog- Evaluation
You find what you want to find. I can type in my Google browser and type articles of mental heath and
violence and there will be multiple articles disproving the fact that is it connected, yet I can type in
mental illness and violence proof or stereotype and a full list proves it. So what do we believe. Where
do we draw the line. Can we even really see if they are connected? In my search for an unbiased opinion I
went for a little mind diving. To start on my journey I decided to ask anyone I know if they believed
there was a connection between mental illness and violence, so of course I just put it on social media to
see what people said and as they night progressed I could see the passion of peoples opinion come
out. Yet there was never a firm agreement of an overall opinion. But some brought out a couple great
points. One in particular, nature verses nurture. There were several people in the discussion who believed
in this concept. So to further this research I continued looking for an unbiased way, which at the end of
the day, there really isnt one. But there was a video that caught my
eye. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb7HYuQChf0 We see a little kid who feels nothing when he
kills his brother for playing with his toy plane. I know what youre thinking right now. This is a segment
of Criminal Minds that has no validity, but this a show that someone connected being a sociopath with
violence connecting violence with mental illness . According to Mike Adams How to spot a sociopath
Sociopaths are incapable of feeling shame, guilt or remorse. So where does nature vs nurture come into
effect now? It almost invalidates that statement to me. To quote myself from Facebook if someone has
intense bipolar or schizophrenia you think they will end up how they are raised not depending on a mental
illness? Because a parent can raise a child and teach and love them and sometimes the child will still do
whatever they want. Not necessarily in lines what they were brought up to do. So I guess in that aspect it
could be a lack of any teaching? So what draws the line? Thats the question. What draws the line of
Mental illness and violence? Lets talk about Ted Bundy, he grew up in a decent family, but what someone
might say is a little unstable. Now there is no question in my mind that his family didnt raise him with
the full support of him being a serial killer but according to nature versus nurture it could be his lack of a
perfect family the reason he was a serial killer. If thats that case (according to Utah Statistics)
someone in 1 of 7 households would end up being a serial killer because they are being brought up by a
single parent and not a complete family unit. Yet the percentages of serial killers total are less then once
percent in the united sates. So that clearly doesnt add up. Here is an example of a woman with multiple
personalities, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2atzoaA2NI&app=desktop she is not prone to harm
anyone yet her mental illness is severe.
So my next question would be. Do people blame mental illness instead of taking responsibility? In
general Its a lot easier for a society or group of individuals to feel better about a person when they feel
like they are suffering then to believe that a person could really feel a satisfaction of violence. Lets take
a look at the shooting back into 2012 in Aurora, Colorado at the Batman Premiere. James Holmes killed
12 people. James saw the whole thing as a game, that taking away peoples lives would give him
points, He made an insanity plea towards his case in trial but after talking to multiple therapists they
found he was legally sane, he planned the whole thing he knew what he was doing. If someone is acting
out of frustration due to lack of communication from their mental illness they will not plan it out. They do
not think ahead, do I think that everyone who has a mental illness has an equal violent demeanor, no. I do
think, like a child, when someone who is trying to communicate cant express their feelings in a way they
want they can become violent. There is a fantastic article by Lois Beckett that connects the two perfectly.
In his article Myth vs. Fact: Violence and Mental Health states People with serious mental illness are 3
to 4 times more likely to be violent than those who aren't. But the vast majority of people with mental
illness are not violent and never will be. Most violence in society is caused by other things. Even if we

Commented [CV1]: Thesis: Is mental health connected to

violence?

Commented [CV2]: This did work well for me. Give an

example of your topic in the media, then bring up an article.
Even so, I didnt see what you saw? Either because Im
missing the story of the clips. Maybe mention that specific
episode?
Commented [CV3]: Not sure if you have to quote
yourself.
Commented [CV4]: New paragraph

Commented [CV5]: A counterargument could be that not

all serial killers are caught, and could kill with long periods in
between.
Commented [CV6]: Explain how her mental illness works,
and how it is not a threat to others.

Commented [CV7]: Good point. If you could, explain why

this point wasnt taken into consideration. How has the
legal system protected those with mental illnesses to the
point where justice is unable to be reached?
Also, how have true criminals abused the protections of the
mentally ill to do what they like?
Commented [CV8]: Maybe give an example of when this
has happened.

had a perfect mental health care system, that is not going to solve our gun violence problem. If we were
able to magically cure schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression, that would be wonderful, but
overall violence would go down by only about 4 percent. FOUR. PERCENT. Thats nothing. So why
is there still a stigmatism of mental health and violence. Because that four percent is the people we know?
Its the person everyone has a story about, its the cousin, aunt, brother, grandpa that we know going
crazy and beating his wife. We all know one person and we assume its like with all the mentally ill. I
know that I have, and I have a mental illness! I would like to bring up my grandpa, he was very abusive
towards my dad and his siblings all through out their childhood. And as my grandpa got older and
developed his bipolar disorder he became the sweetest old man, he became more charitable and more
willing to help the people around him. He has switched his complete demeanor. Now to me that blows
my mind! How is that someone who used to be violent became someone kinder? Where is the correlation
in that? There is always going to be someone we know who has a mental illness and acts out in violence
but where do we stand in connecting the two. Is it the Gun or the Gunman? Is it mental illness causing
violence or nature versus nature?

Work Cited - ( here are the links, I will put them in MLA format)
http://www.naturalnews.com/Mike_Adams.html
http://twistedminds.creativescapism.com/most-notorious/ted-bundy/
Families with a single parent_ UTAH STATISTICSwww.uen.org/.../downloadFile.cgi?...Utah...Uta..
Utah Education Network
Number of families with one parent: 49,077. (1 out of 7 families are single-parent households). Homes:
Total in Utah 598,388. Single detached 393,374 65.7%.
Serial Killers in United states: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/5-myths-about-serial-killersand-why-they-persist-excerpt/
Shooting: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/05/us/james-holmes-theater-shooting-trial/
Connection between mental health and violence :
http://www.propublica.org/article/myth-vs-fact-violence-and-mental-health
http://psychcentral.com/archives/violence.htm
http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/31/mass-murder-and-mental-illness-the-interplay-of-stigma-cultureand-disease/
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/mental-illness-and-violence
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s001270050208

Commented [CV9]: So maybe look up crimes that have to

do with financial gain, such as stealing/mugging. Is human
selfishness or poverty a stronger factor to violence in the
US?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-heroux/americaviolence_b_2861445.html
It shows different crimes and their rates.
Maybe also explain how the culture is also a factor to this.
Try to find ways that support that mental illnesses arent
the main problem with violence in the US.

Commented [CV10]: So you will leave this up for the

reader to decide from the article, or want to show that the
topic is difficult to answer.
Commented [CV11]: This, using examples is a way to get
the reader to understand how difficult the topic can be
since different people with mental illnesses will show
different levels of violence, and many having mental
illnesses that do not lead towards violence.

Visual:
FB POST
Criminal Minds
20 personality disorder girl
1057 word count

Commented [CV12]: Just remember there must be four

visuals.
Commented [CV13]: You havent reached the word
count, but by polishing it up a bit, I believe you will do so.
Also, your topic interests me. I havent heard of people
speaking much about mental illness and violence other than
some of the shootings like the Colorado Theater one. It is
definitely a complicated issue.