Over the past five years, there has been a major change in the way crimes are committed, say police officials.

The State is witnessing more organised crimes, says S. Jayakrishnan, circle inspector, Thrissur (rural). He told The Hindu that the age group of persons involved in mob murders or kidnapping belongs to the vulnerable category. Many cases in recent times were organised crimes, though they appeared to have been committed by individuals.

Incidents of substance and alcohol are on the rise too, says Mr. Jayakrishnan. And these have contributed to the increase in organised crimes.

Mr. Jayakrishnan, a votary of counselling as part of school health programmes, says that the programme helps students in the vulnerable group to get corrected.

Says Dr. Ajeesh Ramachandran, consultant, Government Mental Health Centre, Thrissur, “If children in the 8 to 15 age group who show conduct disorder are not corrected, it could create problems for the individual as well as society”.

Children facing problems at home such as parental conflict, or at school where they could be facing learning disability or attention deficit hyperactive syndrome, would be easy prey to substance and alcohol abuse.

Dr. Ramachandran says that the bio-psycho-social model of a person is affected in major ways by circumstances. While the genetic make-up of a person cannot be changed, if a person with bio-chemical vulnerability gets exposed to situations that lower his/her self esteem, the person would easily fall into substance or alcohol abuse.

According to the latest studies, 25% in the community suffer from some kind of depression. It is the situations around a person that aggravate it, says Dr. Ramachandran.

Mr. Jayakrishnan says loosening of family relationships leads to a decline in social and moral values, making people take to violence. Access to the Internet and mobile telephony are causing strains in relationships, he says.

Roy Abraham Kallivayalil, president, World Association of Social Psychiatry, says that for a person to behave in a brutal manner, there could be a psychotic disorder induced by substance or alcohol abuse. While it does not exculpate a person committing such crimes, it points to the lacunae in detecting mental health problems and providing treatment at the right time.

Mostly, problems at home go unnoticed until a crime is committed, says Mr. Jayakrishnan. There have been times when initial counselling had gone a long way in getting such problems resolved, he says.