ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the relationship between mental disorder and crime. The various forms of mental disorder are considered, especially distinguishing between personality disorders and mental illness. Whether people with these disorders have particular relationships to offending when compared with those who do not suffer these problems is examined. In so far as there are relationships, the difficulties of distinguishing between mental disorder as a cause as opposed to being a consequence of crime and criminality are explored. How mental disorder is dealt with in court is briefly considered, but a fuller account is given in Chapter 14.
