Mental Health Homicides at all time low

The number of homicides by people with mental health disorders is at an historical all time low, while killings within the UK have risen over the last 30 years. 

Dispelling the myth of murderous mental health patients propounded by sections of the press, new figures show that the numbers of people who have died at the hands of people with mental health disorders has fallen by around two thirds in the past three decades.

 Stereotypes influnce policy

Findings based on homicide statistics from 1946 to 2004 show that the public's concerns about violent mentally ill people are totally unfounded.

‘Homicide by people who use mental health services reached its peak in 1973, and has been in a  steadily decline ever since and now is at an  all time low, but when reading the newspapers you wouldn't think that,' Professor Suman Fernando, consultant psychiatrist told Black Mental Health UK.

 Practitioners have suggested that the reduction in such killings could be linked to improvements in treatments. The Academics who carried out the analysis say their findings confirm health campaigners reservations over the passing of the 2007 Mental Health Act, which was driven largely by public perception of dangerousness rather than reality.

Commentators point out that the stereotyping of the mentally ill as dangerous has influenced mental health policy to a greater degree than hard evidence. This has thrown into question, the judgment of those responsible for the contentious 2007 Mental Health Act, which includes within in the new provision to compel people to undergo treatment under Supervised Community Treatment Orders.

Findings not hitting headlines

The research team from England and Australia assessed the homicide statistics from England and Wales between 1946 and 2004. They found the rate of total homicide and the rate of homicide due to mental disorder rose steadily until the mid-1970s when the rate started to fall.

The teams analysis for the subsequent 24 years from 1981 to 2004, revealed that homicides due to mental disorder declined to historically low levels, while other homicides continued to rise.

Explanations for these low figures range from change in the threshold for the finding of a verdict of diminished responsibility, the largest group of such homicides. But as there have been no changes to the official definitions to the defense of much since reforms in the mid 1950

Another possibility is that methods of detecting mental disorder before trial have changed over the past 50 years, but the detection of mental illness among prisoners is more likely to have improved over this time.

Whatever the reason, it has been noted that this new research published in this month's British Medical Jounal has not managed to gain the kind of headlines, that a rare killing by a mental health patient would receive.

‘Homicides by mental health patients are lower than they has ever been this century,

Public knowledge is sieved

This is the sort of thing that should be in the headlines, but it doesn't get into the newspapers at all. It  is amazing what public knowledge is composed of because I don't know of anywhere apart from professional journals that have publicised.
It is important for people to know that homicides by mental health patients are lower than they has ever been this century. It just goes to show public knowledge does not come from facts but information is carefully sieved before it is put into the public arena,' Professor Fernando said.

The research concludes the reasons for the rise and fall in homicides attributed to mental disorder are not clear. The earlier increase in such homicides may have been due to the same sociological factors that caused the increase in other homicides over that time.

The subsequent decline may have been due to improvements in psychiatric treatments and services, The researchers also suggest that another possibility is that there has been an informal change to the legal tests for the finding of homicide due to mental disorder.