The relationship between mental illness and violence has been a longstanding issue for clinical, social, and legal policy concerns. Ancient views have linked mental disorder to violent behavior, and the 19th century continued with the prevailing idea that individuals with serious mental illness may become violent. More recent studies attempt to empirically investigate the link of mental illness to violence, and dispel invalidated negative associations. Currently, violence is correlated with specific diagnostic subgroups; violence is found to be associated with mental disorder, intellectual deficiency, and substance abuse. Emphasis is on the complete clinical evaluation of the violent patient, to include medical, emotional, social, and environmental factors as well as differential diagnosis (Monahan, 1992; Mulvey, 1994; Reid, 1988; & Torrey, 1994).
A review of the literature reveals, that many initial studies were characterized by methodological weaknesses. Conclusions were based on limited samples, a lack of comparison groups, weak criterion variables, limited data substantiation, and inadequate operational definitions; results may not generalize to the general population. However, consistent findings are notable and worthy of further consideration. More recent studies have included larger sample sizes and comparison groups; these results help qualify the relationship between mental illness and violence (Hodgins, 1992).
Throughout history, people have believed that mental illness and violence were related. In a play written about 270 B.C., Plautus wrote of a maid who had taken up a sword and was threatening to murder a lover, and was described as crazy. The Roman philosopher Philo Judaeus divided the mentally disordered into two groups, the easy-going kind, and the savage, dangerous kind. These attitudes persisted throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In the United States this perception is as old as recorde...