The Pros And Cons Of Mentally Ill Offenders

One may believe that being a criminal is horrible due to the stigma attached to them. However, image being a mentally ill offender, you not only have the stigmatization of being a criminal, but also have a label of having a mental disorder as well. Both of these factors have a significant burden on offenders when it comes to finding employment, which sometimes can be a condition of their probation or parole requirements. According to Lindstedt et al. (2005), almost fifty percent of the subjects in their research reported being unemployed. This is an astounding number of individuals who cannot provide for themselves. By not having steady employment, mentally ill offenders run into a myriad of other issues. It is as if this obstacle bleeds into so many more such as housing, counseling, prescriptions, transportations, medical, etc. According to Scott (2008), a contributing factor to increased criminal activity among mentally ill offenders is their lack of education, which in turn leads to their lack of employment. They cannot find decent employment without an education, which is a cycle that contributes to criminality.

Due to living in poverty, viable housing options are especially difficult to come by. Therefore, we see a vast quantity of mentally ill offenders living in disadvantaged neighborhoods or even homeless. Scott (2008) mentions that by living in these neighborhoods that are socially disadvantaged and inept, this does in fact increase the risk of violence, which can create a challenge in desisting from crime for mentally ill offenders. These offenders do not have a safe place to go home to, so having a mental illness, especially a severe disorder, can certainly place significant strain on the offender by not having adequate