Mental Illness And Violence Sociology

Understanding the relationship between violence and mental illness requires an intimate understanding of the background of each. In regards to violence, it is necessary to pinpoint the root of aggression, the genetic makeup of anger, and the epidemiological factors attributed to both interpersonal and intrapersonal violence. How closely related is mental illness and violence? Let’s take a look. On a biological level, the genetic cause of violence can be described as a “polygenetic phenomenon,” according to Cadoret Rj, Love LD, and Decor E. in their academic publication “Genetics of aggressive and violent behavior.” Violence is like a polygenetic reaction, with many genes acting in a coordinated fashion to produce an aggressive phenotype.

Of 115 studies that were reviewed by Lund and colleagues in their paper “Poverty and common mental disorders in low and middle income countries: A systematic review,” there was a prevalent positive association between a range of poverty indicators and common mental disorders. These disorders, which include depression, anxiety, and somatoform disorders

Epidemiological research shows that serious mental illness extends beyond the risk of external violence, also proving to be a strong factor in suicide, which accounts for the majority of firearm fatalities. Federal research shows that more than 60 percent of gun deaths are suicides, with rates of population-attributable risk between 47 and 74 percent, and even higher for those diagnosed with a mental illness. [3] This data is accurately surmised by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), who, on their stand for violence, gun reporting laws, and mental illness, state that, “people with mental illness are more likely to be the victims of violence [than they are to be perpetrators of violent action].” Because suicide — especially mental illness related suicide — is more prevalent than mental illness related interpersonal violent action, the link between mental illness and violence is further blurred, and the Adam Lanza “assumption’ is continuously called into question. However, based on these findings, the relationship between low-income, gun violence — both interpersonally and intrapersonally — and the accessibility to mental health care is impossible to