Question on mental health assumptions

[dmallind]

NOTE: I AM TAKING NO POSITION ON THE NATURE OF MENTAL HEALTH OR HOW MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE BEHAVE. THIS IS ENTIRELY A QUESTION ON WHAT PEOPLE CLOSER TO THE ISSUE THAN I AM FEEL WHEN MENTAL HEALTH IS DISCUSSED IN SPECIFIC WAYS.

OK here's the question. How do people who know about mental illness, even deal with it personally, react (and trust me I am sure there is not just ONE answer here), when a person who acts horrendously is assumed to be mentally ill? Here I'm referring to the common response that people who go on killing sprees or mistreat their own children etc must automatically be mentally ill, and that this is a primary cause of their evil acts.

I could see it being taken in a variety of ways really - positive concern that mental illness should be treated before such things occur even though they are very rare; neutral opinion that the guilty party should be assessed before punishment/treatment, or negative bias that mental illness leads to evil acts.

Again, while no expert I'm well aware that the mentally ill are more likely to be victims of crimes than perpetrators, and that few indeed are at risk for violence. I'm asking about the reaction to evil acts leading to assumptions of mental illness, not the other way round.

Thanks!