ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE OF A LINK BETWEEN MENTAL-ILLNESS AND VIOLENCE

The relationship of mental illness and violence is an issue of long-st anding clinical and policy importance, and recent research on this ass ociation has sparked renewed debate. The author formulates six stateme nts on the association that seem warranted by recent investigations an d reviews the research evidence. In general, contrary to findings of e arlier research, an association does appear to exist between mental il lness and the likelihood of being involved in violent incidents. A dua l diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse probably significant ly increases the risk for violence, and the association between mental illness and violence is probably significant even when demographic ch aracteristics are taken into account. Given the considerable limitatio ns of current research, priorities for future research include attenti on to the strength of the association for individual subjects, inclusi on of adequate comparison groups of non-mentally-ill persons and a bro ad range of variables, and intensive studies of repetitively violent i ndividuals over time.