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The difficulty in mental health diagnoses, in general, and correlating mental health with crime is that we do not really know what the person was thinking. We do not know whether Alexis was being truthful about the "unseen individuals" and whether that had anything to do with his behaviors. This is also why some criminal justice experts and mental health experts are skeptical of some defendants in court cases and convicted offenders who are incarcerated. It is extremely easy to know the "recipe for mental health diagnoses" and therefore say exactly what police and mental health experts want to hear. When you talk to people who utilize mental health services, some of these people will honestly tell you that they know how to stiff the system, get unwarranted sympathy, and exaggerate or falsify information related to mental health. The same applies to people who technically wouldn't be diagnosed with a mental health condition under other circumstances.
On one end, it is good that they are not quickly labeling him as "criminal" but, on the other end, he should not be quickly labeled as "mentally ill." The average person with a diagnosable mental condition is not committing violent crimes--definitely not committing mass murder.
Last edited by DrPhil; 09-17-2013 at 10:13 PM.
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