ABSTRACT
The high prevalence of mental disorder among people in prison does mean that the various forms of psychological disturbance always needs to be kept in mind when considering prisoners. One set of explanations relates directly to a person's mental state. The possibility that criminals are typically mentally disordered is explored. It turns out that disentangling whether mental illness is a direct cause of offending or a consequence of a criminal life style, especially imprisonment, is rather difficult. Consideration of whether other aspects of personality are typical of criminals is another approach to understanding their psychology. There are some general trends of interest, but the variety of criminal activity makes definitive correlations problematic. The link between mental disorder and crime can be explored by examining the levels of known criminal activity among mentally disordered people and the level of mental disorder among known offenders.
