The relation between violent crime and mental illness, particularly Schizophrenia, is very complicated. Some studies show people with severe mental illnesses are slightly more likely to commit crime. But things like substance abuse, poverty and family access health care often come into play. But most mentally ill people aren't violent, and most criminals aren't mentally ill. In fact mentally ill people are more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators. Also, what the statistics don't show is that mentally ill who are law-abiding rarely go on to commit crime. They actually tend to be less likely, believe it or not. There is a small subset of mentally ill people who are more prone to violence. But the whole group shouldn't be treated the same way. Or have their picture painted with the same broad brush.
Unfortunately it's human nature to group people together and make assumptions based on how they see a particular group as opposed to individuals.
Having spent five years as a Psychiatric Nurse in a mental health facility, I agree with your point of view and feel you've stated it well. Although, as you put it, schizophrenia is complicated, I would say that most afflicted with this disorder are having too difficult a time organizing their thinking to formulate complex violent activity. Now, this is not to say that frustration doesn't cause some outbursts of anger, it can. But as to planned, calculated violence, it may well be beyond most schizophrenics ability. Of course, all this is as variable as the many versions of the human mind. Other forms of mental disorders take different routes of behavior, but "painting with a broad brush" only confounds the issue.
S Some years ago, I had a contract to resolve and repair the damages to a London local authority semi secure apartment block for the mentally disabled. The vast majority of the problems were with the residents forgetting to turn taps off, particularly when they started running a bath and forgot all about it. At the introduction, I was told about the strict rule of having their social worker present all the time that I was in their apartment. The first time, when water started pouring through one of the ceilings, that rule went out of the window faster than the soggy carpets. While working, most of the residents took a lot of interest, chatting and telling me about the building along with their own problems. As a result, I often stayed on into the evenings, so the rule went out of the window altogether. One afternoon, a jobsworth inspector made a huge fuss about me helping a guy with his maths and sent social worker in the following day. That poor social worker, I was helping the guy with advanced trigonometry, not adding 2+2. The guy with mental problems was capable of designing a suspension bridge. rather than watching the lawn outside grow. Despite the fact that I had no hesitation in calling them idiots when they flooded the place, or burnt their dinner to a cinder on the cooker, I did not get a single complaint during the entire year. All I did was treat people with respect. Meanwhile, our daughter who only deals with completely sans people, spends every Friday and Saturday late evening, dragging them kicking and screaming into her van. She needs three assistants for that one. So what is mental disability.? I accept that CORRECTLY diagnosed conditions exist, but I would estimate that around 75% is as a result of social neglect. We often jump to the conclusion that all this happens in poor and run down areas. After smashing the windows in Tesco's, one our daughters regular 15 year old little brats, told her that he needed to make a 15 minute appoint with his fathers PA, for his weekly chat. His father is the CEO of one of the UK's largest companies and his mothers time is divided between planning the social events and getting her hair done. Meanwhile their son runs the streets, getting addicted to drugs and alcohol. A final thought. Why is mental disability so rare in farming areas. Perhaps it is because the parents work from sunrise to sunset, so that their children's minds and bodies are fully occupied with RESPONSIBILITIES, such as feeding the pigs.
