A Comparative Analysis of the Official Crime Statistics of People with Mental Illness and Public Perception

Abstract

Objectives : There exists only a limited number of studies on the people’s perception of criminality of people with mental illness. People’s fear of the dangerousness of people with mental illness may have been exaggerated, and yet there are few studies exploring whether people’s view of the crime rates of mentally ill people are correct or not. Methods : A total of 363 college students participated in the present study. The present study first compared the official statistics of the crime rates of the mentally ill with the public perception. In addition, the rates of mentally ill offenders with previous convictions across crime types are compared with people’s perception. Results : Compared to the official crime statistics, people’s estimates of crime rates of mentally ill offenders were grossly exag gerated across crime types, including fraud, assault, rape, robbery, theft, homicide, and arson. Furthermore, the rates of mentally ill offenders with previous convictions across all crime types on the official crime statistics were actually higher than people’s estimates. Conclusion : The present findings reveal that people‘s view of the crime rates of mentally ill people is considerably distorted. There is an urgent need to clarify these prejudices in order to help people with mentally illness adjust to society and to prevent them from committing crime. (Korean J Schizophr Res 2016;19:25-31)