The widely held belief that serious mental illness has been “Criminalize” is based mainly on findings that persons with serious mental illness are more likely to be arrested (1) and are overrepresented in jails (2) and prisons (3). Why persons with serious mental illness are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated is unclear, but a literal and popular interpretation of the criminalization hypothesis implies two possibilities. First, symptoms of serious mental illness have become de facto criminal offenses; that is, persons with serious mental illness are arrested and incarcerated for displaying psychiatric symptoms. Second, symptoms of serious mental illness motivate or otherwise cause actual criminal offenses.