Homicide

Homicide is a health issue both because it contributes significantly to mortality, particularly among young men, and because of the association between having a mental disorder and an increased probability of committing such violence. Though the number of patients of mental health services who kill is diminishingly small the public and political concern generated is enormous. Such concern usually manifests in the blaming of the services, individual clinicians, or both. The community expects mental health professionals to minimize the risks they face from mentally disordered people and, not unreasonably, make little distinction between those rendered homicidal by psychosis, chronic intoxication or personality. They also expect mental health professionals to play a role in explaining the hows and the whys of such violence, particularly when it manifests in its more outrageous variants such as serial and mass murder. Those expectations are not unreasonable and a failure to respond risks diminishing our profession's social significance.