Crime, Punishment, and Mental Illness: Law and the Behavioral Sciences in Conflict

Preface

Preface You just loved crucifying me. You loved inducing cancer in my head, terrorizing my heart and ripping my soul all the time. —Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho* As this book was nearing completion, a twenty-three-year old student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Seung-Hui Cho, killed thirty-two people and wounded fifteen others before committing suicide. The shootings took place on the Virginia Tech campus on April 18, 2007, in two episodes. Cho first shot two students in a dormitory; a few hours later he moved to a classroom building where he killed five faculty members and twenty-five more students before killing himself. In the ensuing investigation, police found eight pages of notes in Cho’s dorm room that law enforcement characterized as a suicide note.The note contained criticisms against people of privilege and Cho’s assertion that“you decided to spill my blood.”On April 18,2007, NBC received a package from Cho time-stamped between the first and second shootings. It contained, photos, writings, and recorded videos in which Cho likened himself to Jesus Christ. As the events unfolded at Virginia Tech, the shootings received extensive media coverage. Media discourse routinely *From the photographs, video, and writings that Seung-Hui Cho mailed to NBC between the two attacks on the Virginia Tech campus (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18188852/). ix emphasized information that indicated that Cho acted coolly and deliberately—the notes in his dorm, the package to NBC, the purchase of guns prior to the shootings,and witness accounts seemed to signify that Cho was a “cold-blooded killer.” However , further investigation called into question Cho’s mental state at the time of the shootings. Faculty and students interviewed after the shootings described Cho as a “loner,” and some of Cho’s professors reported being concerned about the content of his writings as well as his demeanor in classes. In fact, in 2005 two female students accused Cho of stalking and harassing them. The university investigated the matter and took Cho to a mental health facility for evaluation.The physician who examined Cho did not specify a diagnosis but indicated that Cho had a flat affect and depressed mood. He also noted that Cho denied suicidal thoughts and did not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder. Based on this mental health examination, the New River Community Services Board found him mentally ill and in need of hospitalization. Following Virginia state law, the board temporarily detained Cho at the mental health center pending a commitment hearing before the county district court. At the hearing, the judge certified in a court order that Cho presented an imminent danger to himself because of his mental illness, but recommended outpatient treatment for Cho rather than inpatient hospitalization. Cho never complied with the order for the mandated mental health treatments as an outpatient. No one monitored his compliance and no one ever summoned Cho to the court to ask why he failed to comply. Cases like Cho’s, in which a mentally ill individual commits acts of violence, form the central examples in this text as we examine the conflict between law and the behavioral sciences concerning treatment of the mentally ill in our society. These examples point to conflicts between law and the behavioral sciences for us to consider as we assess critically our public policy toward the mentally ill. However, the analysis of the x Preface text moves far beyond cases in which the mentally ill commit violent acts. For although events like the Virginia Tech shootings capture the media’s attention and are tragic outcomes for victims and their families, acts of violence by the mentally ill are in actuality quite rare. However, they bring to the forefront questions about our society’s response to the mentally ill. Questions we may ask include the following: Why did the judge permit Cho to remain among a student population after his psychiatric examination? Why was there no monitoring of Cho’s compliance with the judge’s order? Were the shootings the actions of a sane or insane person? Answering these questions will require an understanding of how persons with mental illness have become primarily a criminal justice problem as reflected in laws and court decisions, as well as the movement to control the mentally ill through incarceration in prisons.The claim we will make throughout this text is that...