substantially among those who are
dependent on intoxicating substances. In
other words, it's likely that some of the
people in your local bar are at greater
risk of committing murder than your
average person with mental illness.
Of course, like the rest of the population,
some people with mental illness do
become violent, and some may be riskier
when they're experiencing delusions and
hallucinations. But these infrequent cases
do not make "schizophrenia" or "bipolar"
a helpful general-purpose explanation
for criminal behavior. If that doesn't
make sense to you, here's an analogy:
Soccer hooligans are much more likely to
be violent when they attend a match, but
if you tell me that your friend has gone
to a soccer match, I'll know nothing a
bout how violent a person he is.
Similarly, if you tell me your friend
punched someone, the fact that he goes
to soccer matches tells me nothing about
what caused the confrontation. This puts
recent speculation about the Arizona
suspect in a distinctly different light: If
you found evidence on the Web that
Jared Lee Loughner or some other
suspected killer was obsessed with soccer
or football or hockey and suggested it
might be an explanation for his crime,
you'd be laughed at. But do the same
with "schizophrenia" and people nod in
solemn agreement. This is despite the
fact that your chance of being murdered
by a stranger with schizophrenia is so
vanishingly small that a recent study of
four Western countries put the figure at
one in 14.3 million. To put it in
perspective, statistics show you are about
three times more likely to be killed by a
lightning strike.
The fact that mental illness is so often
used to explain violent acts despite the
evidence to the contrary almost certainly
flows from how such cases are handled
in the media. Numerous studies show
that crimes by people with psychiatric
problems are over-reported, usually with
gross inaccuracies that give a false
impression of risk. With this constant
misrepresentation, it's not surprising
that the public sees mental illness as an
easy explanation for heartbreaking
events. We haven't yet learned all the
details of the tragic shooting in Arizona,
but I suspect mental illness will be
falsely accused many times over.
http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2280619
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Vaughan Bell is a clinical and
neuropsychologist at the Universidad de
Antioquia, Colombia, and King's College
London.
http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2280619
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