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Is Mental Illness Relevant in Reporting a Crime?

Posted on September 04, 2008

Liz Spikol comments on the media s reporting of a horrible and tragic shooting in Alger, Washington on Tuesday by 28-year-old Isaac Zamora. Philip chimes in over at Furious Seasons. Both suggest that mental illness is a relevant fact to the story, because it helps explain the criminal activity. I say Bollocks! A person s mental illness no more explains someone s criminal activity than someone who has no such history of an illness. Spikol says, for instance: If that s what made him [the murderer] go on a rampage a disconnect from reality that s information. It sure is....

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