Public's Attitudes Toward Mentally Ill Offenders in Greece

Mentally ill offenders constitute a vulnerable population group with unique characteristics, and have endured multiple public stigmatizations, which has not been sufficiently studied. The purpose of this study was to capture attitudes of the public toward mentally ill offenders in relation to their perceptions of mental illness in general, as well as their degree of familiarity with it. Our sample of 2059 people can be overall described as a men preponderance, married, with mean value age of 26 years, higher educational level, and medium or higher socio-economic status. Participants completed the ATMIO, CAMI, and Familiarity scales online. The total familiarity index value with mental illness was found to be 4.88, which counts as moderate to low. It was also concluded that women and those with a high educational level sustained more positive attitudes toward mentally ill offenders. However, negative stereotypes (with a mean value of 26.20), stigmatizing attitudes related to risk in the community (mean 16.10), and reduced responsibility for actions (mean 9.45) were recorded, while some (mean 16.50) showed compassion and emphasized on the mentally ill need of rehabilitation. The youngest people were the ones who recorded the most absolute and harsh attitudes. These findings validate the need of raising awareness and informing, especially, the young public about issues of mental health, including the need to oppose prejudices with everyday measures, which can be accessible to the new generation. Besides, we should extend research to various professional groups that come in contact with mentally ill offenders in order to collect data, which could contribute for intervening policies and formulating different sets of strategies for those people.