Mental Disorder and Crime

About this subject

• What you'll learn

  After successfully completing this subject you should be able to:

  1. Delineate the key issues surrounding definitions of mental disorder and criminal behaviour;
  2. Describe the major models of mental disorder and models of criminal behaviour, and the relationship between the two;
  3. Summarise the fundamental debates surrounding views of criminal behaviour and mental disorder, including free will versus determinism, nature versus nurture, and person versus situation;
  4. Describe the main classification systems of mental disorder and identify the strengths and weaknesses of these systems;
  5. Describe the relationship between mental disorder and concepts of dangerousness and the legal responses to dangerousness;
  6. List the main categories of mental disorder and explain how these disorders may lead to criminal behaviour; and
  7. Critically evaluate the relationship between various criminal behaviours and types of mental disorder, and in particular, the extent to which there is a special relationship between mental disorder and crime and its implications for practice.

• Topics covered

• Description

• Assessments

• Textbooks

• About Griffith University

Entry requirements

Part of a degree

To enrol in this subject you must be accepted into one of the following degrees:

Core

• GRF-FMH-GCE-2025 - Graduate Certificate in Forensic Mental Health

Elective

• OUA-PSU-GCE-2025 - Postgraduate Single Subjects
• GRF-MCJ-MAS-2025 - Master of Criminology and Criminal Justice
• GRF-FMH-MAS-2025 - Master of Forensic Mental Health

Equivalent subjects

You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:

• GRF-MCCJ7103 (Not currently available)

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

Study load

0.125 EFTSL

This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.

Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.

Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.