Emily Moser Research Question(s) What factors contribute to the public perception that mental illness is strongly related

to violent crime? Working Thesis The public perceives the mentally ill to be more violent than the general population because of what they hear from the media, ignorance to socioeconomic factors more strongly linked to violence, and misconceptions about the extent of mental illness. In reality the mentally ill are more likely to be victims of violence. Possible Main Points in Support of Your Thesis (i.e., your claims, reasoning, and evidence): 1) The media shows cases of mentally ill committing crimes. Evidence to support this point: Columbine high school shooting 2) Ignorance to other socioeconomic factors more strongly linked to violence. Evidence to support this point: race, gender, substance abuse, and history of abuse are more correlated to violence than mental illness, mental illness is often combined with one of these when factors 3) Misconceptions about mental illnesses and their extents, treatments, etc. Evidence to support this point: misconceptions about the mentally ill being unable to function in society, hold down a job, etc. 4) The mentally ill are actually more likely to be the victims of crime. Evidence to support this point: found stats on CQ researcher, hoping to find a better source. They are more likely to be victims because abusers think they wont seek help. Possible Objections to Your Thesis (or any of the points mentioned above): 1) The statistics show that the mentally ill are more likely to commit crime Evidence that might be used to support this CA: Show the statistics Flaws in/response to this CA: The statistics are only slightly higher and for the most part can be accounted for because of other factors (see evidence 2) 2) Substance abuse is caused by mental illness

Evidence that might be used to support this CA: Brain structure makes addiction more likely Flaws in/response to this CA: its an environmental factor, also not all people with mental illnesses are substance abusers. A Few Possible Sources (give specific titles/authors): 1) Comprehending Columbine by Ralph W. Larkin (version of book available online through library website) 2) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders : DSM-IV contributor, American Psychiatric Association. (reference section of library) 3) Depression: Why does the disorder affect so many people? By Richard Wornsnop

Emily Moser Writing and Rhetoric 10/25/11 Exploratory Draft In this paper I plan to argue that mental illness is wrongly associated with violent crime. The public sees the most extreme cases in the media, which are the ones that stick out in their minds. Also, other factors such as substance abuse and race are often ignored when looking at statistics concerning mental illness and crime rates. The public also may not have a clear view about what mental illness is and its different extents, again only considering the most extreme cases when forming their opinions. This topic is interesting to me because I can relate to the misconception; I recently lost a family member to drugs and mental illness. I understand how easy it is to automatically blame the mental illness and ignore other factors, so I would like to help others understand that most of the mentally ill are not violent and how other factors lend significant contributions. This is important also to help protect the mental ill, often the victims because of these misconceptions. My intended audience is those who are not familiar with mental illness. Family members, psychiatrists, and others who spend time and work with the mentally ill will already have a pretty good understanding of their functioning and the truth behind mental illnesses from experience. I think it will benefit those who do not have a lot of personal experience around the mentally ill. It will benefit them in that they will not fear the mentally ill and also they will not have biases or mistreat them because of their misconceptions. I plan on convincing my audience

by describing exactly what mental illness is and putting a lot of emphasis on the other factors that contribute to violence. Sources Ive founds are psychological manuals, and mostly articles online through the library website. I found a book on Columbine I would like to use. I think my audience will want to see sources that are used by professionals, and the DSM-IV is the bible of psychology according to my teacher in high school so I think that will be a good and reputable source. I think my audience will expect to see statistics as well as real examples, so Im going to try to find case studies to support my evidences to give people things they can relate to when reading. I think its easier to understand when you hear stories about people, not just numbers about them. Part of the trouble Im running into is finding book sources at the library because I feel like none of them quite fit right. Im having the same problem with finding a source from the course, but Im leaning toward including the Odd Girl Out article when talking about how the mentally ill are sometimes more victimized because of how they are perceived. My main concern is finding book sources at the library because its just so much information to sort through. I feel like that and finding more counter arguments will be my main struggles. I think that if I am able to spend more time in the library that will be helpful to me, and I think that once I have a larger variety of sources then Ill be able to find more counter arguments as well as support. I was also considering breaking apart my argument about other factors into two parts with substance abuse being its own section.