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"When newsworthy violence occurs, mental illness is frequently blamed. This overemphasis on mental illness fuels social stigma and cognitive bias that exaggerates the link between violence and mental illness. But science shows this link is weaker than commonly believed and that numerous other risk factors are stronger predictors of violence, such as psychopathy, younger age, being male, access to guns, substance abuse, and anger. Because overemphasizing the role of mental illness leads to underemphasizing the role of these other risk factors, this leads to suboptimal violence prevention policy. Conversely, if the media, policymakers, and the public recognize these stronger, multiple risk factors for violence, then this opens up the door to developing and implementing more effective strategies for evidence-based violence prevention that will lead to greater public safety"--
About the author
Eric B. Elbogen is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine and a Psychologist at the VA. He has conducted clinical work and research primarily at the intersection of law and mental health for twenty-nine years and authored over 200 scientific articles. He is board certified in forensic psychology and serves on the editorial boards of scholarly journals, including
Law and Human Behavior and the
International Journal of Forensic Mental Health.
