2.9 Summary
- The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-5-TR is currently the most updated system that behavioral health professionals use to clinically diagnose people with mental and substance use disorders.
- This chapter briefly summarizes mental disorders, traits, and issues that may be seen in the criminal justice field. It is important to acknowledge that this chapter is simply a summary of various disorders and should in no way be used to diagnose people with a mental disorder.
- As a professional in the criminal justice field, it is helpful to have a basic working knowledge of some more common mental disorders. Only professionals with specialized training and education specifically for clinical diagnosis can diagnose people with mental disorders. Chapter 10 of this text discusses the training and experience required for careers in clinical mental health.
- Aside from the DSM diagnoses and related symptoms or traits discussed in this chapter, criminal justice professionals should be aware of, and are likely to encounter, related issues that deserve attention and care; these include the concepts of criminality and psychopathy, as well as the issue of malingering. Many factors generally contribute to a person’s conduct that leads them into the criminal justice system, and professionals have an opportunity to address many of these in treatment settings.
2.9.1 Key Terms
- Anosognosia: when someone lacks insight into or awareness of their mental disorder diagnosis and related needs.
- Anxiety disorders: A category of disorders characterized by excessive and persistent fear and related disturbances in behavior. There are multiple types of anxiety disorders.
- Co-occurring mental disorder: A co-occurring disorder is when a person is diagnosed both with a mental disorder and a substance use disorder.
- Criminality: the thinking and behaviors that a person engages in that support a criminal lifestyle.
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM): a classification system used in the United States by most mental health professionals. The DSM includes categories of disorders described in detail to include diagnostic criteria and the percentage of the population that is diagnosed with each disorder.
- Dissociative disorders: Disorders that involve disruption or disconnect in a person’s thoughts, identity, consciousness and memory.
- Malingering: When a person fakes or exaggerates symptoms for secondary gain, such as avoiding work or obtaining benefits.
- Mood disorders: A category of disorders impacting mood and emotion that includes diagnoses such as depressive disorders and bipolar disorders.
- Neurocognitive disorders: Disorders involving cognitive impairment that are acquired due to a medical condition (such as Alzheimer’s disease) or event, such as traumatic brain injury.
- Neurodevelopmental disorders: Disorders involving impairment in academic and/or social functioning that first present in childhood, during the developmental period.
- Paraphilic disorders: Disorders involving the harmful impact (distress, impaired functioning, or victimization of others) due to intense and atypical sexual urges specified in the DSM-5-TR (e.g. sadism, pedophilia).
- Personality disorders: Disorders involving a person’s atypical thinking and behavior that cause them to have trouble functioning and relating to others. Examples are antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
- Psychotic disorders: Disorders that cause abnormal thinking and perceptions that are disconnected from or at odds with reality, such as delusions or hallucinations Psychotic disorders include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and delusional disorders.
- Psychopathy: A set of traits (not a diagnosis) that may include lack of empathy, callousness, deceitfulness, and grandiosity.
- Substance use disorders: A category of disorders that affect a person’s brain and behavior, leading to a person’s continued use of substances such as drugs, alcohol, or medications, despite problems caused by use.
2.9.2 Discussion Questions
- What are the risks and benefits of being formally diagnosed with a mental disorder?
- Why must criminal justice professionals acknowledge both the mental disorder needs as well as criminality traits potentially present in justice-involved people?
- Do you see the benefits of categorizing a set of symptoms to define a diagnosis?
- Do you think people without a formal mental disorder should still have access to behavioral health services? If so, which services?