For many of us harmed by violence, the most significant consideration after overcoming the initial shock is:know that we are far safer if the person who harmed us undergoes rigorous treatment and healing instead of being warehoused in destabilizing carceral environments until their sentence has expired. At this time, they are less well and more likely to re-offend.
Psychiatric diagnoses should be treated as other medical diagnoses, yet stigma and fearmongering ensure that those showing symptoms of their illness are overpoliced and criminalized. Our default response to a person experiencing a mental health emergency results in their containment by law enforcement ― regardless of whether any threat of harm exists ― rather than seeking appropriate and effective avenues for healing and recovery.
Until we recognize that chronic instability informs criminal involvement and that the cumulative effect of our lapses makes individuals and communities unwell, we will continue to fail at safeguarding public safety. Moreover, without prioritizing public health and legislating access to treatment, we miss crucial opportunities to address the basis of an individual’s involvement with our criminal legal system while significantly reducing their recidivism.
My own violent assault by someone in need of mental health treatment reflects this. The person who abruptly singled me out on a busy avenue and then hit me repeatedly with a heavy object had done the same to several Asian women in Manhattan. I later discovered that he came from poverty, had a traumatic childhood, and was pushed through a foster system that inflicted further harm on him.