Crime is extremely prevalent and occurs often. Most people want to avoid talking about crime, out of fear. Whenever an act of violence happens, most people turn to the news to provide them with information regarding the incident. The information gets twisted, and a whole group of people get shamed for something out of their control. The negative ideas about mental health that come from the public are heavily influenced by the media’s negative portrayals when crime is committed by those with mental illnesses. When one “crazy” person does something wrong, every single person with OCD, for example, is also viewed as deranged and unpredictable. Although mental illnesses may ignite something in the brain to act, mental health can not fairly be the …show more content…
A survey was conducted by Colleen Barry to get an understanding of how the public feels about gun policies for individuals with mental illnesses. The survey reveals that the public strongly agrees with providing stronger background checks on those with mental illnesses. Barry elaborated on the idea of taking the public’s opinion and consider the idea of giving more improved background checks. Out of the respondents, eighty-five percent agreed with the idea of “requiring states to report to the national background-check system” each individual who is unable to be in the possession of a gun if they been “committed to a hospital for psychiatric treatment or been declared mentally incompetent by a court” (Barry 1081). Although the majority agreed with this policy, there is still overall mixed feelings of doubt and ambivalence among the topic being surveyed. In the surveys, fifty-nine percent of the respondents agreed on increasing government spending for better mental health treatment. Many mental illnesses go untreated, which causes the illness to expand and worsen. Receiving treatment and therapy will help the individuals who are suffering and the media and public would not think so negatively about the mentally …show more content…
McGinty goes into a deep discussion about this topic and opens up a “window of opportunity” that will seem to “exacerbate negative attitudes towards persons with serious mental illnesses” (2). The media’s manipulating opinions have massive impacts on their public viewers, especially when people are dependent on the news media to receive any type of information. It is proven that there is a slightly increased chance for a person with a mental disorder to perform a crime, however this should not affect the entire population of individuals suffering from mental illnesses. Those who do think negatively towards the mentally ill are only thinking this way because they are fearful of the unlikely probability that they will become