Mental illness and criminal violence

This article examines the relationship between criminal violence and mental illness. Our data suggest that mentally ill persons tend to have an increa sed risk for committing violent offenses, and that the violent offending by these individuals tends to be recidivistic. Our findings suggest that pare nts who have both committed violent offenses and experienced a psychiatric hospitalization increase the risk of violent offending among their offsprin g. We propose the hypothesis that mentally ill parents transmit a biologica l characteristic which may genetically predispose their child towards crimi nal violence. Prenatal disturbances during critical periods of fetal develo pment may provide clues regarding the etiology of criminal violence.