Final answer:
The link between crime and mental illness may be spurious, meaning they may not have a direct causal relationship.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that the link between crime and mental illness is spurious means that there is a possibility that both mental illness and criminal behavior are not directly related to each other, but rather influenced by some other external factor. In other words, there could be a third variable that leads to both mental illness and criminal behavior. This means that mental illness and criminal behavior may not cause each other and may not have a direct causal relationship.
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