or. Coexistence does not show a casual relationship. Behavior cannot cause behavior. What we must do, in order to prove a relationship between mental illness and criminal behavior is produce some independent link between the two classes of behavior on a biochemical level. We must have a definition of mental illness independent of the behavioral symptoms in order to establish a casual relationship between crime and mental illness. There is such a view and it is termed the Biological Psychiatric view. The view basically states that there is some defect or malfunction in the actual make-up of the brain of an individual which causes schizophrenia. This same defect then causes the criminal behavior such as robbery or murder. The problem here is that we have no actual way of mapping the brain and conclusively determining exactly what portion thereof is responsible for either type of behavior much less that one area is responsible for both. In essence even if true this theory is unprovable. There is also a statistical relationship between crime and mental illness. Guttmacker and Weihofen found 1.5 percent of the criminal population psychotic, 2.4 percent mentally defective, 6.9 percent neurotic, and 11.2 percent psychopathic (Jeffery, 1985:66). These figures are very unconvincing. Additionally they are based on old diagnostic categories and procedures which are most unreliable. Also, the meaning of neurotic or psychotic or psychopathic is uncertain within the context of ...
