A penetrating investigation of the psychopathology of the criminal mind and why people commit crimes with Dr. Doug Smith, Forensic Psychiatrist for The Summit County Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services Board

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On this intense episode of Light ‘Em Up we delve into the deep, dark recesses of the brain and investigate the psychopathology of criminal behavior, mental illness and drug addiction. 
We probe and investigate why people commit crime. 

We are “on the record” with Dr. Doug Smith, DFAPA, Medical Director for the Summit County (Akron, Ohio) Alcohol Drug Addiction and Mental Health Board.  “Recovery starts here” - as it states on the ADM web site found at www.admboard.org.

The ADM Board is responsible for planning, funding, monitoring and evaluating treatment, prevention and support services for people who experience alcoholism, drug addiction and/or mental illness.  We touch on some of the pillars of the “Stepping Up Initiative”, which is a pioneering collaborative program in The U.S., started right here in Summit County, involving judges, chiefs of police, social workers and clinicians.    

At least 50% of individuals in prison on the state and local levels have moderate and/or severe mental illness – far higher than the general population, so, clearly there are pervasive issues as it relates to the connection of incarceration and mental health.  Dr. Smith expressed that through their collective efforts, “The ADM Board labors daily to do their collective best to get people into care and treatment and not incarcerate them” – to “break the cycle of mental health issues feeding the criminal justice system and helping people to be diverted from incarceration and improve their quality of life and away from an institutional setting”. 

“If we can figure out how to get people into treatments and treat their cycles of addiction and break their disease, we will stop the crimes,” he says. 
“People need help – drug addiction and mental health suffering is not a moral failing on a person’s part – it is a brain disease.  We wouldn’t make fun of someone suffering from cancer or any other disease, we shouldn’t stigmatize or belittle those who suffer from mental illness, PTSD or any disease of the brain, including addiction.”  

In this explosive episode we drill deep and investigate:

•  The push factors why people commit crime:  What is different in the brain of individuals who commit crime(s)? Oftentimes, criminal behavior is carried out to fuel an addiction. A person is either in the active process of: using a drug, obsessing about the drug or doing anything to acquire the substance, including robbing and even killing to acquire it.  
•  We probe the deep, dark crevices of the criminal brain and the psychopathology of Jeffrey Dahmer, the serial killer (from Barberton, Ohio) who cannibalized his victims and investigate his dark, anti-social personality disorder issues that fed his insatiable necrophiliac desire to perform sex acts with the corpses of his murder victims.  
•  What if a person is suffering from “command hallucinations” where they hear voices, and what do you do if those voices tell them to kill? 
•  Killing and a lack of remorse:  A person who possesses malignant narcissistic personality disorders coupled with a severe lack of remorse can commit horrible acts of violence, such as a bloody murder, then walk away from the crime scene, go home, make themselves a sandwich, turn on the TV and relax as if nothing has transpired. 

I sincerely hope this episode educates, empowers and edifies you and provides you with some insight behind the crime scene tape as to what a Forensic Psychiatrist does, the types of clients s/he works with, and the problems that their patients suffer from. 

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Thanks, Executive Producer Phil Rizzo