It’s a familiar scenario: every time a mass shooting appears in the national news it is inevitably followed by politicians and media pundits who immediately point to the need for more mental health services as the answer. Questions are quickly raised about the mental health status of the shooter and so the connection is always made in people’s minds between violence and the mentally ill. The public’s misperceptions about mental illness and violence are further fueled by popular entertainment and crime dramas in which characters with mental illness are portrayed as dangerous and violent – as often as 60% of the time. Yet the true facts present a very different picture.
A Canadian study of criminal defendants showed that people with a mental disorder committed only 3% of violent crimes while 7% were attributed to individuals with substance abuse disorders. In fact, the overall conclusions from studies are that mental disorders alone are not the cause of most violence and that substance abuse is a major determinant – whether there is mental illness present or not.
It is true that the combination of having a mental illness and suffering from substance abuse increases the risk of violence. But the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study showed that “the prevalence of violence among those with a major mental disorder who did not abuse substances was indistinguishable from their non-substance abusing neighborhood controls.” The same study showed that if there was concurrent substance abuse disorder the risk of violence was doubled.
In other studies, the risk of violence attributable to a mental disorder was 4.3% – a figure so low that overall violence in a community would be reduced by only a very small amount even if violent crime perpetrated by the mentally ill were completely eliminated. Compare this to the 34% risk of violence found to be attributable to those with substance abuse disorders. For those suffering from both mental illness and substance abuse disorder the risk was 5%. Bottom line: the facts show that if we could reduce or eliminate both mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders with effective treatments, violence could be reduced by over one third.
As relatively small a factor as mental illness may be in contributing to violence in our society and as significant a factor as substance abuse clearly is, the full picture has many socio-demographic and socio-economic dimensions. Violent behavior is complex and difficult to predict. Yet we do know some of the factors that contribute to violent behavior – and these are the same for people with or without mental illness. A person’s family history of violence or exposure to violence along with stressors such as divorce, separation, and grief can play a major role. Statistically, we know men tend to perpetrate violent crimes more than women, as do younger people and people who are unmarried. Unemployment, poverty, and homelessness all contribute to violent behavior. In fact, individuals with severe mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violence; they are 2.5 times more likely to be attacked, raped or mugged than the general population.
Unfortunately, a majority the population seems to believe the opposite of these findings and assumes that all people with mental illness pose a threat of violence towards others and themselves. These beliefs fuel the stigma that is attached to people with mental illness, leading to widespread discrimination. The President’s New Commission on Mental Health found that, “Stigma leads others to avoid living, socializing or working with, renting to, or employing people with mental disorders – especially severe disorders such as schizophrenia.” This then leads afflicted people to have low self-esteem, isolation and hopelessness. They take in these stigmatizing beliefs and feel embarrassed and fearful of admitting their illness or seeking care for it.
Churches and faith-based communities can make a difference by learning about mental illness and violence, resisting and combating misinformation and stigma, offering support to those with mental illness and their families and advocating for more effective mental health and substance abuse treatment and follow-up in our communities.
For more information or to have a presentation about mental illness at your church contact the Rev. Lynn Czarniecki (czarniecki@optonline.net), Deacon and member of the dicoesan Justice Board.
References:
“Fact Sheet About Mental Illness and Violence” from the School of Social Work, University of Washington
“Violence and Mental Illness: An Overview.”
World Psychiatry. 2003 June; 2(2): 121-124
“Mental Illness and Violence” by Michael Craig Miller, M.D.
Harvard Medical School
February 25, 2013
