ween violent behavior from mental illness and normal criminal behavior. Justice: Treatment or PunishmentAs with depression, mental illness is most often influenced and aggravated by the individual social environment which increases the risk for violent behavior and criminal acts. But in society, these outburst are usually handle wrongly by the authorities and the justice system.Many people that understand both depression and mental illness believe that persons who have committed offenses due to states or behavior caused by a brain disorder require treatment, not punishment. According to NAMI,(1999), "believes that mental health systems have obligation to develop and implement systems of appropriate care for individuals whose untreated brain disorders may cause them to engage in inappropriate or criminal behavior. (p.1) Because of the lack of knowledge and the fear of the two, depression and mental illness sufferers are all stereotyped as the same in our legal system. Our justice system couple depressed people with mentally ill people and giving them mainly the same types of punishment without any acknowledgment of their disorder. Many organizations are trying to stop this process. These organizations are trying to help sufferers from being punished for something they really had little or no control of. Treatment is the answer for many of these individuals and it need to start in the communities where these people live. But, people in the communities stereotype depressed people and mentally ill persons, because of fear and the lack of knowledge about their problem. So, these individuals are label "crazy", "psycho", and a "menace to society." According to the APA online,(1999), "people often fear what they do not understand, and for many of us, mental illness fall into that category. This fear stems from the common misconception that the term "mental illness" is a diagnosis, and that all mental illnesses thus have similar sy...
