@article{1476842,
      author = {Elbogen, Eric B.,  and Verykoukis, Nico, },
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1476842},
      title = {Violence and Mental Illness : Rethinking Risk Factors and  Enhancing Public Safety /},
      abstract = {Shows that the myth that mental illness is strongly linked  to violence makes us all less safeMass shootings have  become a defining issue of our time. Whenever the latest  act of newsworthy violence occurs, mental illness is  inevitably cited as a preeminent cause by members of the  news media and political sphere alike. Violence and Mental  Illness: Rethinking Risk Factors and Enhancing Public  Safety exposes how mental illness is vastly overemphasized  in popular discussion of mass violence, which in turn makes  us all less safe.The recurring and intense focus on mental  illness in the wake of violent tragedy is fueled by social  stigma and cognitive bias, strengthening an exaggerated  link between violence and mental illness. Yet as Eric B.  Elbogen and Nico Verykoukis clearly and compellingly  demonstrate in this book, a wide array of empirical data  show that this link is much weaker than commonly  believed-numerous other risk factors have been proven to be  stronger predictors of violence. In particular, the authors  argue that overweighting mental illness means  underweighting more robust risk factors, which are external  (e.g., poverty, financial strain, inadequate social  support), internal (e.g., younger age, anger, substance  abuse), or violence-defining (lacking empathy, gun access,  hate group membership). These risk factors need to be  incorporated more fully into public policies around public  safety. Priority is needed to focus on strategies for  reducing the viability and acceptability of violence as a  choice, which regards violence- defining risk factors  necessary to every violent act.Violence and Mental Illness:  Rethinking Risk Factors and Enhancing Public Safety offers  a robust challenge to the inappropriate dominance of mental  illness in discussions of mass violence, as well as  proposed solutions that may be crucial to bringing about a  greater degree of public safety.},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479801473.001.0001},
      recid = {1476842},
      pages = {1 online resource :},
}