An analysis of perceived criminality of mentally ill populations

An analysis of perceived criminality of mentally ill populations
Purpose: To analyze the issue of perceived dangerousness and criminality of mentally ill
populations, through reading and summarizing an empirical article, applying course material and
thinking critically about the issue. With this assignment you will be answering the question of
“Why is it that people perceive mentally ill populations as dangerous/criminal?
Guidelines: Read the Link et al. (1999) article and write a two to three-page paper (in APA
Style) to answer the question of why you think it is that people perceive mentally ill populations
as dangerous and even criminal, despite the statistics that indicate the contrary. You will
incorporate the class readings (from chapter 8, mainly), a summary of the article, and provide
your thoughts on the issue. You will start your paper with a description of the problem and
providing information from the book on the prevalence of criminality and violence in mentally ill
populations. You will then summarize the assigned article. Finally, you will provide your
thoughts on the cause(s) of perceived dangerousness and criminality of mentally ill populations:
Why do you think that the public perceives mentally ill populations as dangerous?
When completing your assignment be sure to follow this structure:
1. Introduce the problem at hand, in your own words (~ 1 short paragraph)
2. Present the research findings on prevalence of crime in mentally ill populations (~2
paragraphs). You can use references found in Chapter 8 to write this section
3. Provide a brief description of the paper (~1 page): Summarize the authors’ hypotheses,
methods and results as they pertain to perception of dangerousness.
4. Provide your opinion on why the public perceives mentally ill populations as
dangerous/violent/criminal (~ 1 page).
5. Reference section (APA Style, on it’s on page)