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Lynne Lamberg
JAMA contributor

JAMA. 1998;280:407-408.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

ARE MENTALLY ILL people more likely to commit violent crimes than the rest of the population? Physicians, law enforcement officials, persons with chronic mental illnesses, advocacy groups for patients and their families—as well as the horror movie–going, nightly news–watching general public—may hold different views on this complex question, which evokes concerns about civil rights, housing, employability, punishment vs treatment, and more.

For the 1998 answer, speakers at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in Toronto, Ontario, in June drew on recent epidemiologic samples of community residents and rigorous studies of criminal populations. Mental disorder and violent crime, they found, are, indeed, strongly linked.

This conclusion, speakers acknowledged, holds the potential for further scapegoating and marginalizing the mentally ill. But it should not be glossed over, they said, because there also is good evidence that appropriate treatment of persons with major mental disorders can substantially reduce . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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