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532 CHAPTER 13 Psychological DisordersCRITICAL THINKINGAre People with a Mental Illness as Violent as the Media Portray Them?A children’s show on public television presented a retelling of theclassic novel Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. However, the name ofthe chief villain had been changed: Twain’s “Injun Joe” had beenrenamed “Crazy Joe.” As this example illustrates, writers for televisionare well aware that it is no longer considered acceptable toportray negative stereotypes of particular racial or ethnic groups,including Native Americans. Unfortunately, it also illustrates thatanother stigmatized group is still fair game: the mentally ill.Multiple studies have found that people with a major mental illnessbelong to one of the most stigmatized groups in modern society(Corrigan & O’Shaughnessy, 2007). In much of the popularmedia, people with psychological disorders are portrayed in highlynegative, stereotyped ways (Gerbner, 1993, 1998). One stereotypeis that of the mentally disturbed person as a helpless victim.The other stereotype is that of the mentally disordered person asan evil villain who is unpredictable, dangerous, and violent.One comprehensive survey found that although 5 percent of“normal” television characters are murderers, 20 percent of“mentally ill” characters are killers (Gerbner, 1998). The same surveyfound that about 40 percent of normal characters were violent,but 70 percent of characters labeled as mentally ill were violent.This media stereotype reflects and reinforces the widespreadbelief among Americans that people with mental illness are violentand threatening (Diefenbach & West, 2007). Further reinforcingthat belief is selective media reporting that sensationalizes violentacts by people with mental disorders. Clearly, the public perceptionthat people with a mental illness are dangerous contributes tothe stigma of mental illness (Fazel & others, 2009).Are people with mental disorders more violent than other people?One groundbreaking study by psychologist Henry Steadmanand his colleagues (1998) monitored the behavior of more than1,000 former mental patients in the year after they were dischargedfrom psychiatric facilities. For their control group, theyalso monitored a matched group of people who were not formermental patients but were living in the same neighborhood.The researchers found that, overall, the former mental patientsdid not have a higher rate of violence than the comparisongroup. Former mental patients who demonstrated symptoms ofsubstance abuse were the most likely to engage in violent behavior.However, the same was also true of the control group. Inother words, substance abuse was associated with more violentbehavior in all the participants, whether they had a history ofmental illness or not. The study also found that the violent behaviorthat did occur was most frequently aimed at friends andfamily members, not at strangers.Recent meta-analytic research reviews have confirmed thegeneral finding that substance abuse greatly increases the riskof violent behavior by people who have been diagnosed with asevere mental illness, such as schizophrenia (see Douglas &others, 2009; Fazel & others, 2009). Beyond substance abuse,there is evidence that people with severe mental disorders whoare experiencing extreme psychological symptoms, such asbizarre delusional ideas and hallucinated voices, do display aslightly higher level of violent and illegal behavior than do“normal” people (Malla & Payne, 2005). However, the personwith a mental disorder who is not suffering from such symptomsis no more likely than the average person to be involvedin violent or illegal behavior. Other factors, such as living in impoverishedneighborhoods and abusing drugs or alcohol, arestronger predictors of violence (Norko & Baranoski, 2005).Canadian psychologist Kevin Douglas and his colleagues(2009) emphasize that the overall size of the association betweenpsychosis and violence is relatively small. As they pointout, “Most violent individuals are not psychotic, and most psychoticindividuals are not violent.”Clearly, the incidence of violent behavior among current orformer mental patients is exaggerated in media portrayals. Inturn, the exaggerated fear of violence from people with a psychologicaldisorder contributes to the stigma of mental illness(Fazel & others, 2009). As one comprehensive review of the researchemphasized, “The overall contribution of mental disordersto the total level of violence in society is exceptionally small.In fact, there is very little risk of violence or harm to a strangerfrom casual contact with an individual who has a mental disorder”(U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 1999).CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS Can you think of any reasons why people with psychologicaldisorders are more likely to be depicted as villains than membersof other social groups? Can you think of any television shows or movies in whichcharacters with a severe psychological disorder were shownin a sympathetic light? If so, are such depictions more or lesscommon than depictions of people with a mental illness asdangerous or violent? What evidence could you cite to challenge the notion thatpeople with psychological disorders are dangerous?Hollywood Versus Reality In The Dark Knight,the Joker takes the image of the insane killer tonew heights. As a plot device, the deranged, evilkiller on the loose is standard fare in televisiondramas like CSI and film thrillers like the Halloweenand Friday the 13th movies. Such mediadepictions foster the stereotype that people witha mental illness are evil, threatening, and proneto violence—an image that is not supported bypsychological research.