This question and answer session with Dr. Jeffrey Swanson helps clarify what we do and don't know about the connection between mental health and violence and makes suggestions for reducing violence (both at home and in the larger society).
After mass shootings, like the ones these past weeks in Las Vegas, Seattle and Santa Barbara, the national conversation oftenfocuses on mental illness. So what do we actually know about the connections between mental illness, mass shootings and gun violence overall?
To separate the facts from the media hype, we talked to Dr. Jeffrey Swanson, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine, and one of the leading researchers on mental health and violence. Swanson talked about the dangers of passing laws in the wake of tragedy ― and which new violence-prevention strategies might actually work.
Here is a condensed version of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
Mass shootings are relatively rare events that account for only a tiny fraction of American gun deaths each year. But when you look specifically at mass shootings ― how big a factor is mental illness?
On the face of it, a mass shooting is the product of a disordered mental process. You don't have to be a psychiatrist: what normal person would go out and shoot a bunch of strangers?
http://www.propublica.org/article/myth-vs-fact-violence-and-mental-health
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