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Does focusing on mental health stop violent crime?

Steve

Well-known member
obviously when a rampage shooting occurs.. one could easily conclude the guy was nuts..

but the assumption that mentally ill commit more crime is well ludicrous..

facts don't' back up the assumption..

in fact if categories of people who do commit violent crime were barred from having guns.. some very specific groups would be barred.

alcoholics.. including those who just happen to get drunk occasionally.

drug users..

and some minorities, hispanics, blacks and native Americans

For violent crime by race in 2011, 59.4% of those arrested were white, 38.3% were black, and 2.2% were of other races.[23] For persons arrested for homicide in 2011, 49.7% were black, 48% were white, and 2.3% were of other races.


Illinois grapples with keeping guns from the mentally ill
Background checks can do little to stop violence, some experts say

In the volatile debate over gun rights in Illinois, there is at least one prohibition that both sides of the issue claim they want: The dangerously mentally ill should not be allowed to own a firearm.

The shooting deaths of 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard this month by a man who had showed signs of psychosis has reignited a national debate over keeping firearms out of the hands of disturbed individuals.

In Illinois, lawmakers recently made it easier for authorities to weed out those with severe mental illness looking to buy a gun. The passage of a concealed carry law, which goes into effect in January, calls for a fortified electronic database that would require mental health practitioners statewide to report patients they believe pose "a clear and present danger" to themselves or others.

The new requirement makes Illinois one of a handful of states whose law goes beyond federal standards.

Even so, the background checks will still do little to keep a senseless act of mass violence from happening in Illinois, say some experts.

"Given the leaks in the system, this does nothing to keep us any safer. It will only hurt people with mental illness and not do anything to protect us," said Mark Heyrman, a professor of mental health law at the University of Chicago who helped write the state's mental health code.

Previously, mental health providers were required to report only those who had been determined by the courts to be mentally defective or had been a patient in a psychiatric hospital within the past five years.

Under the new law, some mental health practitioners — including clinical psychologists, social workers, counselors, physicians and registered nurses — will be required to report patients they believe pose an imminent threat.

"I don't know any clinician who would not have someone who is violent or threatening hospitalized ... which is what makes this so silly," Heyrman said.

The new measures certainly would not have flagged Aaron Alexis, the Navy Yard gunman, despite the fact that he told police he heard voices and had had brushes with the law, including misconduct with guns. His issues never led to criminal convictions or rose to the level of involuntary commitment, which would have brought him before a judge — the only way his name could be entered into a federal database.

It wouldn't have captured Adam Lanza, the Newtown shooter, either.

Project Description: This project is a scientific inquiry into the societal problem of firearm violence; the link between mental disorder and risk of firearm violence; and the function of laws, such as the federal Brady Act, designed to reduce that risk in part by limiting access to guns for persons with mental illness.

Over 30,000 people were killed with firearms in the U.S. in 2006, accounting for two-thirds of violent fatalities. Acts of gun violence by mentally disordered individuals—such as the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech—have been the focus of intense media coverage and public concern. However, scientific evidence is lacking to support the assumption of increased risk of gun violence among persons with mental illness in general, and little is known about whether existing gun laws are effective in protecting the public. Some legal scholars and mental health professionals allege that the laws are stigmatizing and discriminatory.

Results: Over a 13-year period, there were 45 violent crimes committed per 1,000 inhabitants. Of these, 2.4 were attributable to patients with severe mental illness. "People with psychiatric disabilities are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violent crime (Appleby, et al., 2001)"

There is overwhelming epidemiological evidence that the vast majority of people with psychiatric disorders do not commit violent acts. Only about 4 percent of violence in the United States can be attributed to people with mental illness, compared with 7 percent among people without any mental disorder.

Alcohol and drug abuse are far more likely to result in violent behavior than mental illness.

Subjects with alcohol or drug use disorders were more than twice as likely as those with schizophrenia to report violent behavior.

. Psychiatrists, using clinical judgment, are not much better than chance at predicting which individual patients will do something violent and which will not.”

It would be even harder to predict a mass shooting, Dr. Swanson said, “You can profile the perpetrators after the fact and you’ll get a description of troubled young men, which also matches the description of thousands of other troubled young men who would never do something like this.”

All the focus on the small number of people with mental illness who are violent serves to make us feel safer by displacing and limiting the threat of violence to a small, well-defined group. But the sad and frightening truth is that the vast majority of homicides are carried out by outwardly normal people in the grip of all too ordinary human aggression to whom we provide nearly unfettered access to deadly force.

so in theory.. preventing those who we consider mentally ill from having guns doesn't make US safer..

To make US safer we would have to target the groups of folk who commit more of the violent crimes at higher rates,...

like,.. drunks, druggies, some minorities.

but that wont happen.. instead those who seek help lose their GOD given rights..

oh by the way liberal areas are more prone to violent crimes the conservative areas.. maybe we could just take the guns away from all the liberals as well?
 

Steve

Well-known member
Violence and Mental Illness

As a group, people with mental health issues are not more violent than any other group in our society. The majority of crimes are not committed by people with psychiatric illness, and multiple studies have proven that there is very little relationship between most of these diseases and violence. The real issue is the fact that people with mental illness are two and a half to four times more likely to be the victims of violence than any other group in our society.

Unfortunately, the media spotlights this small group of individuals, unfairly painting all people with mental illness as potentially violent criminals. There is no doubt that the results of a rampage can be tragic, but the media tends to exploit the drama and leave out the context.

Risk Factors

A history of violence: One of the strongest predictors of future violent behaviour is a past history of violence, whether it was experienced as an observer, a victim or a perpetrator.
Substance use problems: Whether it is drugs or alcohol, use of either substance seems to increase the likelihood of violence by sevenfold. [In fact, some studies show that substance use problems increase the risk of violence in any individual far more than the effects of a major mental disorder.
Socioeconomic environment: Not surprisingly, homelessness, lack of social support, poverty and inadequate housing have also been found to contribute towards violent behaviour.
Gender and youth: Being a young, male adult can also add to the risk factors associated with violence.

Remember – a person with co-variant factors but no mental illness is far more likely to commit acts of violence than someone with mental health issues and none of the co-variants.
http://www.cmha.ca/mental_health/violence-and-mental-illness/#.Uv-dnIVJOUk

The U.S. Department of Justice Report on Alcohol and Crime found that alcohol was a factor in 40 percent of violent crimes committed in the U.S.

About 3 million violent crimes occur each year in which victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time of the offense. Among those victims who provided information about the offender's use of alcohol, about 35 percent of the victimizations involved an offender who had been drinking.

Among the 5.3 million convicted offenders under the jurisdiction of corrections agencies in 1996, nearly 2 million, or about 36 percent, were estimated to have been drinking at the time of the offense.

So who is favor of any one that drinks losing their 2nd amendment rights?
 

Steve

Well-known member
Doctors vs. Gun Owners

Doctors

(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is

700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians

per year are

120,000.

(C) Accidental deaths per physician
is

0.171

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of
Health and Human Services.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Now think about this:

Guns

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S.

is

80,000,000.

(Yes, that's 80 million)

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths

per year, all age groups,

is

1,500.

(C) The number of accidental deaths

per gun owner

is

.000188

Statistics courtesy of FBI


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So, statistically, doctors are approximately

9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Remember, 'Guns don't kill people, doctors do.'

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN,

BUT

Almost everyone has at least one doctor.
This means you are over 900 times more likely to be killed by a doctor as a gun owner!!!

yet a doctor may be the one deciding if a person loses his 2nd amendment rights.. :shock:
 
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