Criminally insane

Criminally insane refers to a legal standard in most countries, where the motive for murder or greivous bodily harm is insanity. People considered to be criminally insane cannot differentiate between right and wrong, and enjoy violent actions. Criminal insanity has long been portrayed in movies and books as the primary motive for violent acts, despite the majority of murders being committed as acts of frustration rather than pleasure. The movie stereotype is based on a person who revels in violence making a more convincing or entertaining villain than one who commits murder out of frustration and stress.

The "criminally insane", as portrayed in fiction, would much rather harm others. They will, it is understood, quickly resort to murder as a strategy of conflict resolution - the messier the better. They don't understand the rules of either straight society or of criminal subcultures and are thus doubly shunned, and paradoxically free. Even when institutionalized, they laugh at their captors and plan bloody vengeance. They invariably act alone, unless the force of a communal religious delusion is strong enough to engender a group hallucination. Even their utterances, tinged with brilliance and dark poetry, are obscene, and it is understood that if caught they must be quarantined forever because their disquieting, pregnant-with-menace torpor is dangerously infectious.

Some people, such as a number of mental health organizations, contend that this classic stereotype of criminal insanity is incorrect. Whereas persons with schizophrenia or psychosis are more likely to commit murder, they contend that the stereotype is far removed from fact, and fight to prevent negative stereotypes in popular media.

External link

 * Information on the links between mental illness and violence