Victims and Impunity

Posted on November 30, 2007 in Stigma Violence

I have chosen to be “out” about my mental illness. This is doable because I live in the safest part of the country when it comes to crime. It’s not likely that I’ll be bonked upon by a mugger or have my house rifled by burglaries. A new study out of England, by a mental health charity known as Mind, reports that persons suffering from mental illness who don’t share my community’s good policing might be best off keeping their mouths shut — if they can hide it:

A survey by the charity found that 41 per cent of respondents complained of persistent bullying, 27 per cent of sexual harrassment and 10 per cent of sexual assault. Just over a third – 34 per cent – said that they had also been victims of theft or financial crime, and a quarter had their homes targeted.

Comparisons with previous studies suggest that the problem is increasing, with the latest figures showing that people with mental health problems are far more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators of violent crime. Yet the study suggests that many crimes go unreported, with vulnerable adults feeling stigmatised by the police and legal system because of their illness….

The charity surveyed nearly 400 people with direct experience of mental distress and their care workers. Seventy-one per cent of respondents had been abused or harassed in public in the past two years, compared with 48 per cent in a similar study conducted 11 years ago. Twenty-two per cent had been physically attacked, up from 14 per cent in 1996.

Many crimes against distressed people were going unrecognised, Mind said, with 30 per cent of victims telling no one at all what had happened. Of these, a third said that they felt that they would not be believed, while 60 per cent of those who did report a crime thought that the authorities failed to treat them seriously.

There’s a Latin maxim that might be invoked here: impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat –“impunity always invites greater crimes.”