Questions of Violence and Mental Illness

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright January 24, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                

              When 22-year-old Jared Loughner opened fire on Rep. Gabrielle Gifford’s (D-Ariz.) Tucson Safeway parking lot meet-and-greet event Jan. 8, more questions were raised than answered about the relationship between violence and mental illness.  When the smoke cleared, the reclusive Loughner killed six, injured 14, including putting a bullet through Giffords’ left cerebral hemisphere.  Mental health experts hasten to point out data that indicates the mentally ill are no more likely to commit violence than the so-called normal population.  While a number of mental health experts think Loughner is schizophrenic, a mental illness with delusions, hallucinations, withdrawal from reality, deteriorated social functioning, etc., they see no link between the disease and violence.  Common sense tells you if someone breaks from reality, typical restraints may not stop violent impulses.

            Loughner’s prior threatening outbursts prompted Pima County Junior College officials to disenroll him pending a psychiatric evaluation.  “Arizona has a broad civil commitment law to require to require treatment if it is needed; however, the law cannot work if an evaluation is never conducted or mental health service are not available,” said Michael J. Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  With government cutbacks in mental health services and with too many uninsured residents, Arizona couldn’t intercept Loughner’s violence before unleashed on Giffords and her public event.  Determining in advance who might commit violence is a slippery slope, even for the most knowledgeable mental health experts. Given today’s under-funded mental health care system, violent or suicidal individuals often slip through the cracks and go undetected.

            Citing research that shows that mentally ill patients commit violence no more often than normal individuals doesn’t tell the whole story and certainly doesn’t undo the link.  Taking liberty to use logic, most forms of violence, especially common types like domestic abuse, are prompted by bad judgment, something more present with mental illness.  Legal insanity defenses cite mental illness as an exculpatory circumstance, attempting to absolve violent offenders from the full legal consequences.  Insanity defenses go to the heart of “intent,” where severe mental illness impairs judgment so much that violent offenders aren’t responsible for their actions.  “A clear cut case of schizophrenia,” said psychiatric experts about Loughner, suggesting his mental illness mitigates accountability, something inconsistent with buying extended clips for his semiautomatic weapon.

            Advanced planning or premeditation, including buying that 30-round clip, doesn’t jibe with an out-of-control psychotic, incapable of recognizing reality or discerning right-from-wrong.  Planning murders, or any other complex actions, requires the kind of steps not consistent with someone insisting mental illness impaired his judgment.  When individuals suffer from poor reality-testing, delusions, hallucinations, fits of rage, or any other pathological symptoms, it’s going to affect judgment.  Otherwise containable emotions, especially rage and anger, can be transformed into violence.  When you add to that the disinhibition that comes from substance abuse, the chance of violence dramatically increases.  Rumors of Loughner’s pot-smoking certainly weigh against his limited judgment from schizophrenia or any other mental problems, increasing his chances of violence or suicide.

            Once Loughner was identified making threats prompting Pima College to disenroll him, law enforcement should have been notified to trigger an automatic psychiatric evaluation.  Exceptions to present medical privacy or confidentiality rules must be written into federal law to allow publicly-ordered psychiatric evaluations to go into a national mental health database.  Anyone appearing in a public psychiatric database should be prevented from purchasing handguns.  If state Departments of Motor Vehicles can prevent mentally ill patients from getting driver licenses, surely the mentally ill can be prevented from buying dangerous weapons.  Dr. Linda Jones, assistant dean of Counseling and Health Services at Salem State University, cites data showing the mentally ill no more likely to commit violence than the general public, stats dangerously misleading and illogical.

             More accessible mental health treatment can help prevent violence with better diagnosis and treatment   Once Loughner was fingered as making threats at Pima College, he should have been psychiatrically evaluated for mental illness and violent behavior.  “Unfortunately, with budget cuts, hospital closings, and an increase in consumer rights, sometimes there are insurmountable barriers to treatment options, frustrating to say the least,” said Lisa Rose, President of National Alliance of Greater North Shore, explaining how tragedies, like in Tucson, take place.  No one should be misled by statistics that show the mentally ill no more likely to commit violence than the general public.  Mental illness, like drugs and alcohol, clouds judgment, making irrational behavior more likely.  Anything that impairs judgment automatically increases the chances of violence and erratic behavior.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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