Jessica Moreland, Adanna Johnson-Evans, Ph.D., Marianna Carlucci, Ph.D., Rachel Grover, Ph.D.
The Impact of Mental Health Diagnoses on Perceptions of Risk of Criminality
Research has indicated that a mental illness is a “double-edged sword”: not only do
individuals have to cope with psychiatric symptoms, but they also face stigma related
to their diagnosis (Corrigan, 2000). Previous research has examined the relation between
mental illness and perceptions of dangerousness (Angermeyer & Dietrich, 2006), but
less research has focused on its relation to perceived risk of criminality (Nee &
Witt, 2013). Individuals with a mental illness are perceived to be more dangerous
than those without (Corrigan et al., 2002), and individuals with schizophrenia or
substance abuse diagnoses are typically viewed as being more dangerous (Edlinger et
al., 2014). Research also supports that race plays an important role in the conceptualization
and experience of mental health stigma (Anglin, Link, & Phelan, 2006; Zerger et al.,
2014) The current study is a replication of Nee & Witt’s (2013) study, which investigated
the relation between mental illness and perceived criminality. Several changes were
made to ensure equality across conditions.
Final analyses included 290 participants recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.
Each participant was randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes describing a
young adult named Sam. The first three vignettes depicted Sam with a mental illness
(schizophrenia, depression, or alcohol dependency), and the fourth vignette was the
control. Participants were asked to rate Sam on a series of scales indicating his
likelihood of future criminal behavior, severity of the future crime, likelihood of
rehabilitation, their sympathy towards Sam, how trustworthy they perceived Sam, and
the race they perceived Sam to be. Participants were then asked to indicate how familiar
they were with mental illness and criminal behavior. It was predicted mental illness
conditions would elicit higher levels of perceived risk of criminality, and that the
schizophrenia and alcohol dependency conditions would elicit the highest levels. Increased
familiarity with mental illness and criminal behavior were predicted to be associated
with lower perceived risk of criminality. Lastly, it was predicted that a perceived
non-White racial identity would elicit higher perceptions of risk of criminality.
Presence of mental illness was a significant predictor, ( F(1, 288) = 6.43, p = .012),
where mental illness elicited higher levels of perceived risk of criminality. The
remaining predictor variables (type of mental illness, familiarity with mental illness
and criminality, and perceived race) were not significant predictors of perceived
risk of criminality. Exploratory analyses revealed the schizophrenia (β = .163, p
= .041) and alcohol dependency conditions (β = .244, p = .002) elicited higher levels
of perceived severity of future crimes. Perceived mental illness severity (r(240 )
= .292), trustworthiness (r(288) = -.309), and likelihood of rehabilitation (r(288)
= -.380) were all significantly correlated (p < .001) with perceived risk of criminality.
These results suggest that presence of mental illness is most important in influencing
participant attitudes about perceived risk of criminality, though type of mental illness
may influence beliefs about severity of future crimes. The impact of race could not
be examined due to participant homogeneity but should be examined in future studies.