The man who killed six people and injured countless others at a Bondi shopping centre on Saturday, 40-year-old Joel Cauchi, reportedly had “mental health issues”, police explained soon after the tragic event, while ruling out terrorism.
Cauchi had reportedly been diagnosed with a mental illness at age 17 years and had received treatment in the private and non-private sector. But Queensland Police said Cauchi’s mental health had declined lately.
No matter the circumstances, such acts of violence should be condemned. If mental health issues contribute to such acts, they have to be understood and prevented.
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However it’s necessary to notice the overwhelming majority of individuals with mental illness don’t pose a risk of violence to others.
Tragically, there remains to be an unacceptable level of stigma and misunderstanding of mental illness, including the mistaken belief that individuals with mental illness are violent. People may draw conclusions from cases similar to the Bondi attack, where individuals with histories of mental illness engage in violence.
So is there a link between mental illness and violent crime? Here’s what the evidence says.
For most individuals with mental illness, there’s no increase in violence
Research from Australia and overseas shows a small percentage of individuals with serious types of mental illness could also be at increased risk for violence.
Our research in Victoria, for instance, shows 10% of individuals with schizophrenia (a serious type of mental illness where the person will be so unwell as to be out of touch with reality) have perpetrated a violent crime. This compares with about 2.4% of the overall population. So, while the individuals who have schizophrenia were more more likely to have a violent offence, the overwhelming majority of them didn’t.
The findings are mixed regarding a direct relationship between more common mental illnesses, similar to anxiety and depression, and violence.
Although the explanations that anyone – including individuals with psychiatric illnesses – offends vary, we discover three categories of individuals with mental illness who engage in violence.
1. Irrational considering and beliefs
The first is the very small group of individuals with a serious mental illness, typically schizophrenia, who act violently as a direct results of symptoms of mental illness.
For these people, their illness results in irrational considering and beliefs that may increase the likelihood of them behaving violently. An individual may develop delusional beliefs they’re being targeted or their lives are in peril in the event that they don’t act violently against perceived enemies.
For these people, in the event that they didn’t have the actual symptoms of mental illness, they’d not offend.
People on this category could also be found not guilty by reason of mental impairment. They are then typically held in secure hospitals or prisons where they’re treated and eventually releasedonce they are not any longer found to be a risk to others.
2. Overlap with social aspects
The second category is far larger, and more varied. For this group, people don’t offend due to their mental illnesses, per se, but resulting from the related individual and social issues that will accompany mental illness.
People with some types of mental illness could also be more likely to interact in substance misuse, for instance, which can, in turn, contribute to offending.
Many of the negative social aspects related to serious types of mental illness overlap with the negative social aspects that increase the probability of being violent.
People with serious types of mental illness who’ve backgrounds characterised by social and family disruption and drawback along with abuse, behavioural disturbances, substance use and academic failure and disengagement are significantly more likely to offend than individuals with mental illnesses who would not have such disturbances of their backgrounds.
Of course, most individuals with a psychotic illness don’t come from such disadvantaged backgrounds.
Research and clinical experience also show aspects related to offending inside this group are much like those that would not have mental illness. In addition to substance abuse, this may include violent attitudes, exposure to trauma and violence, association with people who find themselves antisocial, and poor family and skilled support.
3. Mental illness isn’t related
The final group of individuals with mental illness who offend achieve this no matter their mental illness. People on this group are typically characterised by early onset antisocial and illegal behaviour.
They differ from other offenders with mental illness by having a pervasive and stable pattern of offending no matter their mental state. This behaviour almost all the time precedes the onset of mental illness.
While individuals with a psychopathic or antisocial personality disorder shall be included on this group, not all the people within the group could have such a personality disorder.
Mental health care can reduce the possibility of violence
It’s not the mental illness per se that causes people to be violent. Rather, it’s symptoms of the illnesses and related aspects.
There is good evidence due to this fact that providing psychiatric and psychological care may help manage symptoms of mental illness and reduce the likelihood of violence.
It’s also necessary to address the broader aspects which are related to offending and violence amongst people who find themselves mentally sick.
Unfortunately, partly because of this of the pressures on mental health services, staff have few resources to assist address the array of things that may lead to 1 behaving violently. Continued investment and education is required to spice up the services and address the aspects that result in violence amongst individuals with mental illness.
While we’ve made some progress in the popularity that mental illness affects a big percentage of the population, individual acts of violence committed by someone with mental illness must not lead us to leap to conclusions that every one individuals with mental illness are violent.
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