Exam (elaborations)
Critically discuss the link between bipolar disorder and crime
- Module
- PSYCHOLOGY
- Institution
- PSYCHOLOGY
Critically discuss the link between bipolar disorder and crime
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Mental Health problems and CrimeSection A: Critically discuss the link between bipolar disorder and crime
(1050 words)
Bipolar is a severe mental health disorder and can occur in three different forms: bipolar I, bipolar II
and cyclothymia. Bipolar disorder affects more than 1% of the world’s population, regardless of
nationality or ethnicity and is one of the leading causes of disability (activity limitation) among young
people (Grande et al, 2016). A key characteristic of bipolar disorder is mania, whereby definition it
involves aggressive or irritable connotations. Using the DSM-V, a guide for diagnosing mental health
disorders, it states that for Bipolar I the person must have experienced mania, with or without
depression at least once (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Bipolar II consists of experiencing
depression at least once and hypomania (which is mania for only 4 days not 7). Cyclothymic is a mild
form of bipolar II which must last longer than 2 years.
Violence and crime are not always associated with bipolar disorder and very few people with bipolar
disorder are violent. Many studies have shown that bipolar disorder alone is not related to the
increase likelihood of violent crime (Erickson et al, 2005; Greenberg and Rosenheck, 2014; Fisher et
al,2014). Some research even goes as far as to say that you are 27% more likely to be a victim of
crime if you have bipolar disorder than someone who does not have a mental health problem
(Pascual et al, 2020). However, Barton et al (2021) stated that if you are a youth (aged 14-20) with
bipolar disorder you have a higher likelihood of recurring police contact compared to someone
without bipolar, suggesting that having bipolar does link to crime to a certain degree. This essay will
determine whether bipolar disorder causes someone to take part in violent crimes or if there are
other aspects, which added to bipolar disorder are more influential in causing violent crimes.
When looking at bipolar disorder causing criminal behaviour independently of any other aspects,
Weiser (2018) completed a study which showed that patients with bipolar disorder were 2.5 times
more likely to be convicted of violet crimes compared with someone without a mental health
problem and their siblings. It is important to look at the siblings of patients with bipolar disorder to
show that there isn’t an environmental (e.g., financial reasons) reason that they commit a crime. It
was also shown by Weiser (2018) that females, when diagnosed with bipolar, are 16.1% more likely
to be involved in violent crimes than males. This shows supporting evidence in that bipolar disorder
is associated with increased risk of violent crime, especially in females. It should be acknowledged
,that this study used an Israeli method of defining bipolar disorder rather than the DSM-V method
used in the UK. This is an issue because they may determine someone to have bipolar but when
using our guide to defining mental health disorders they may not be seen as having bipolar disorder.
Therefore, we cannot consider this study’s results to be accurate (true) within the UK population.
Although this doesn’t disregard the observed association between bipolar disorder and violent crime
entirely, it highlights that it may be a limitation when considering this within the UK. Future
research should consider comparing the definition of bipolar disorder before conducting research,
this will mean that the definition can then be changed to discuss the link between bipolar and
criminal behaviour.
The importance of recognising the role of other aspects when considering the relationship between
bipolar disorder and violent crime is further supported by research. This stems from the idea that
bipolar is most occurred with substance abuse (damage to health by taking drugs) 33.5% of the time
(Goldstein et al, 2010). This is due to the idea that by taking drugs it may bring those with bipolar
disorder into social contexts (specific settings) where crime is more likely. Witt et al (2013) looked at
209 patients with bipolar disorder and found that violence was strongly associated with drug misuse
around 10.3% of the time. However, this study used a mixed sample (patients with different mental
health problems) to gain their results, this means you can argue there isn’t enough evaluation into
bipolar disorder alone to fully explore the relationship between bipolar disorder and offending.
Results of this study should therefore be treated with caution as it is necessary for further evidence
to determine if these results are specifically applicable to those with bipolar disorder. Leading to the
idea that future research should include more background research on their samples independently,
i.e. Does age of initial substance abuse effect the relationship of bipolar disorder on offending?
More recently, Prince and Wald (2018) conducted a study on 151 bipolar patients and found that
irritability went from 34.5% in non-drug users to 50% in cannabis users and 100% in cocaine users.
To further add to this, they also stated how verbal aggressivity went from 7.9% in non-substance
users to 25% in cannabis users and 33.3% in cocaine users. This study clearly shows that for people
with bipolar disorder substance abuse does increase aggressiveness however, a limitation of this
study is that is assumes that aggressiveness and violence are interchangeable and is seen as
intended harm, which is a criminal act. This may be seen as an issue because violence is not always
associated with aggression (Abu-Akel & Bo, 2018). Thus, future research could improve this link by
comparing how substance abuse of bipolar disorder patients differs within different types of crimes,
to look at the relationship of substance abuse, bipolar and offending but also how his changes within
different crimes.
, Another variable which is shown to affect the relationship between bipolar disorder and crime is the
further factor of a traumatic event (an event which causes high stress). A study conducted by
Adiguzel et al (2019) looked at 112 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder and found that these
patients have 89.3% of physical neglect, 74.1% of emotional neglect, 75.9% of physical abuse, 79.5%
of emotional abuse and 40.2% of sexual abuse. This shows the patients diagnosed with bipolar
disorder should be evaluated with regards to childhood trauma however, more importantly 48.2% of
patients said they had violent behaviour towards others several times, and 29.5% said they had
violent behaviour towards others often. Overall suggesting that a patient who has experienced a
traumatic event and has bipolar disorder does have a strong relationship to offending and violence.
However, this study doesn’t compare the difference of a bipolar group compared to a bipolar and
traumatic event group, therefore you cannot claim that by experiencing a traumatic event when you
have bipolar that it makes you more likely to be violent, but the evidence suggests it needs to be
considered. A limitation of this study is that it was conducted in Turkey, this is a weakness because
the study showed higher rates of physical abuse and physical neglect in male children, but this may
be due to different laws and definitions compared to the UK. On the other hand, this study did take
account of previous substance abuse as well as any other mental health disorders, this prevented
conflicting results if a patient had more than diagnosis.
For these reasons it is hard to determine how bipolar disorder and violence are related. From the
studies shown above it is evident that bipolar disorder and violence can be related but that there are
many other contributing factors such as substance abuse and experiencing a traumatic event. Most
studies still suggest that there is a very limited relationship between bipolar disorder and offending
however, as research develops it may be useful to conduct further research into the relationship of
bipolar disorder and violent crime rates. Webb et al (2014) recruited the largest sample of bipolar
patients to look at violent crime in Sweden to date. However, some of the data used in this study is
from as early as 1973 and this may not be appropriate to use as criminal laws have changed from
this time. Therefore, future research should look at longitudinal studies from a more modern time
frame in order to collect a more relevant systematic review (summary of all literature) in looking at
the relationship between bipolar disorder and violent crime.
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