Behavioral Health Articles

Mental Illness Myths: Violence and Those with Mental Illness

by Kurt Warner

Think about the shows you watch, the news you read, and the movies you see: consider how the mass media portrays mental illness in relation to violence. There’s an undeniable connection between the two in the minds of our culture. Sixty percent of all characters on prime-time television who are depicted as having a mental illness are also portrayed as being involved in violent crime, according to Mental Health America (MHA). In addition, MHA says that over the last fifty years, as the media has became a more powerful influence on our lives, “the proportion of Americans who describe mental illness in terms consistent with violent or dangerous behavior nearly doubled.”

The popular belief that those with mental illness are violent is tragic. It is but one more cross those with mental illness are forced to bear in life. In addition to fighting off the torments of their minds, they also must battle constant stigma and discrimination. The idea that those with mental illness are more often violent is simply false. It’s a cruel and baseless myth.

The truth is that individuals suffering from mental illness show no tendency to be more violent than the general population. The type of violence that those with mental illness are likely to exhibit is violence against themselves: primarily suicide. The truth is that those with mental illness are actually more likely to be victims of violent crime than those who commit violent crime. In one survey more than a fourth of those with mental illness were victims of violent crime in the previous year. A BBC report on a study in Great Britain said that psychiatric patients are actually six times more likely to be murdered than the average person.

Another study looked at the behaviors of over a thousand individuals, both men and women, with histories of mental disorders who had been recently released from psychiatric hospitals. Their behaviors were compared with the behaviors of individuals without histories of mental disorders who lived in the same neighborhoods. The behaviors of the individuals suffering from mental disorders were monitored every ten weeks for a year following their release.

The study found no significant difference in violence between the two groups: either by self-reports or reports by police, family members, or neighbors. The authors stated, “There was no significant difference between the prevalence of violence by patients without symptoms of substance abuse and the prevalence of violence by others living in the same neighborhoods who were also without symptoms of substance abuse. Substance abuse symptoms significantly raised the rate of violence in both the patient and the comparison groups, and a higher portion of patients than of others in their neighborhoods reported symptoms of substance abuse.” Thus, substance abuse is a key factor in the exhibition of violence: not mental illness.

These studies are the tip of the iceberg. Many more show that those with mental illness not any more violent than the rest of the population. Mass media has done an enormous disservice to our friends suffering from mental illness by linking them with violence.

Society is often misled into believing false beliefs and perceptions. For instance, we used to believe that the earth was flat and the center of the universe. These beliefs faded as society became more educated over time. Let’s hope that the belief that those with mental illness are more likely to be violent than others will also fade as we become more educated about mental health. The many films, ads, shows, and reports on television and in news that link mental illness with violence do a great disservice to those with mental illness, since there is no real link between the two. Popular culture makes the exception the rule whenever it links violence to mental illness.

Kurt Warner is the Job Quest Coordinator for Catholic Charities of Cortland County.