Title In the past decade mass shootings and domestic violence has become a topic frequently talked about in America's society. In America it is a popular belief that mass shootings are a product of mental illness or because there are an abundance of guns. A part of mass shootings occur because of mental illness, but not in the way many people believe. Drugs that are prescribed to people that have a mental illness or are depressed are affecting people's brains and the things that cross their minds. America's crisis on mass shootings and domestic violence is due to the prescription of psychotropic, psychiatric and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs, commonly referred to as antidepressants, from trusted psychiatrists. One of the common things people believe is that depression leads to violent thoughts and actions. According to psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin depression has absolutely no connection to violent acts. There was a study done on thirty-one drugs that were found in connection with violent acts and mass shootings. Out of the thirty-one drugs in the test, five of the top ten were antidepressant drugs. The five drugs that were found to be associated with violent acts were Prozac, Paxil, Luvox, Effexor, and Pristiq. Dr. Peter Breggin says mass shootings have started showing up only since SSRI drugs have started being sold and prescribed. Another two of the top ten drugs were prescribed to people that have ADHD, which means that these drugs are being
Many of these young people committing these crimes are doing it because there is some type of rejection in their life. Doctors try to alleviate there symptoms by giving them higher doses of medication making it worse. In the article by Arbercheski she describes a shooting on December of 2000 when Micheal McDermott went on a shooting rampage at his workplace. It was determined during his trial that he had increased his antidepressant medication, Prozac, from 70 milligrams to 210 milligrams per day. There was also two other recent cases where
Aggression is a deliberate series of actions that lead to harm, injury, or destruction of another organism, and is the most common factor promoting violent crimes. Beyond being the immediate cause of physical injury, aggressive behavior also produces profound long term emotional disabilities in its victims. When outburst of aggression is comorbid with DSM-IV-defined neuropsychiatric disorders, the offenders are usually given psychiatric care; however, when they appear normal or healthy, their most likely fate is punishment by the law. This punitive approach often increases aggression, thereby promoting the propensity for violent crimes. Antipsychotics are the drugs commonly used for treatment of aggression and violent outbursts. However, the
Depression and Mental Illness: Crime or Violence/ Treatment or Punishment ABSTRACT Statement of the Problem According to Michael D. Yapko, PhD,(1997) "in every way, depression is a growing problem. Rates of depression have steadily climbed over the last 50 years and are significantly higher in those born after 1954 than in those born before. In addition, the average age of on-set depressive episode is steadily decreasing it is now mid-20s whereas it once was mid-30s. Cross-cultural data show that the United States has a higher rate of depression and mental illness than almost any other country, and that as Asian countries Westernize their rates of depression increase correspondingly."(p.37) And according to the Illinois State
In recent years, violence has been increasing and causing alarm due to the rising statistics and mass shootings. While most people see violence as a danger to our society, few try to understand what is really causing the violence. This literature review examines one approach to possibly reducing violence: better mental health care. This paper discusses the links between mental health and violence, and how proper medication and treatment can help to reduce violence in our communities. This review argues that better mental health care will reduce violence, and will also discuss the counterargument, supported by reliable sources and evidence from multiple sources.
The study showed that during the first half of the two decade-long study, (1994-2005), only “one percent of front page newspaper stories linked mental illness and violence” whereas in the second decade that number jumped to “eighteen percent”. An average of 20 percent of the population of the United States suffers from a mental illness in a given year, and 50 percent receive a diagnosis in a lifetime. 400 random samples of news stories about mental illness in “high-circulation, high-viewership media outlets” in the United States over a 20-year period were analysed. The topic mentioned most frequently was violence (55 percent), followed by violence against others (38 percent) and a 29 percent link between mental illness and suicide. Treatment however is mentioned in almost half of the samples however, only 14 percent describe successful “treatments for or recovery from mental illness”. One of the most pertinent media coverages are mass shootings by people with mental illnesses which increased over the study period from “9 percent of news stories in the first decade, to 22 percent in the second decade” however according to the FBI, statistics have remained steady over the time period. Study leader Emma E. “Beth” McGinty, does understand that it is hard not to assume mental illness is a factor in the lives of the people committing these violent acts. A statement from McGinty says “Anyone who kills people is not
Intellectual and mental disorders have greatly impacted and continue to impact society as a whole. There are mental disorders, such as anxiety, panic disorder, and depression, that affect the individual and those close to them directly, but do not pose as a potential threat to themselves or society. There are, however, mental disorders that disrupt one’s ability to decipher and differentiate between reality and the deranged world they hold within. Violenet outbursts caused by such disorders can be categorized into premeditated or impulsive violence. For example, the effect of the drug phenytoin on prisoners restricts the impulsive violence but not premeditated violence, which suggests that the different types of aggression have different and may even be located in different parts of the brain. For example, those who undergo a paranoid schizophrenic reaction have the inability to identify what is real and what is not. This alters a person’s ability to tell right from wrong; this sudden outburst of violence essentially deprives a person from having a stable
In our world today, we have a generally poor understanding of mental illness in two distinct ways: we don´t understand the dangers that mental illness can present to people as they go about their everyday lives, and we don´t understand how to properly care for people that suffer from mental illness. However, if we better understand when, why, and how mentally ill people can become violent, and if we can better understand how to identify and treat the illnesses these people suffer from, we can drastically improve the lives of many people.
America is in crisis with the current rise of mass shootings. Many times society will use mental illness as a scapegoat for what the shooters did. One must wonder if it is in fact the mental illness a person has or just society’s view of the mentally ill that brings people to the conclusion that the mentally ill are the perpetrators of mass shootings. The perception is that the mentally ill are unstable, not understood and perhaps not cognizant of their actions or in touch with reality. These ideas influence society to fear the mentally ill and in turn blame them for heinous actions that could not possibly be considered behavior of someone sane. Society may need to contemplate some other reasons one may commit mass shootings to begin to truly understand the complex dilemma that is plaguing our country and avoid the continuance of such actions in the future. One of the best ways to figure out how America’s future is going to unfold is to look at how America got to the point where it is today and how that affects Americas tomorrow.
Mass shootings are becoming commonplace in today's society as they increase in frequency. Mass shooters use past attacks as guidance in an attempt to complete the attack as efficiently as possible in order to be broadcasted on the news. The desire to feel important is a need that dwells deep within the psyche of most people. Gun restrictions in the United States of America (U.S.) are lacking in comparison to others countries, causing a large number of guns to become available in the country which, in addition to the loose restrictions placed upon the weapons in many states, places a burden upon the inhabitants of the United States. The many victims of mental illness in the U.S. are relatively ignored due to a lack of understanding surrounding the community, which often results in conditions being untreated, culminating in an increase in violent urges. In the United States, the lack of gun ownership restrictions makes it easier for people with mental illness to obtain them, therefore giving them the means to repeat past shootings, further helping them reach a twisted sense of fame that allows them to feel important.
In the past decade mass shootings and domestic violence has become a topic frequently talked about in America's society. In America it is a popular belief that mass shootings are a product of mental illness or because there are an abundance of guns. A part of mass shootings occur because of mental illness, but not in the way many people believe. Drugs that are prescribed to people that have a mental illness or are depressed are affecting people's brains and the things that cross their minds. America's crisis on mass shootings and domestic violence is due to the prescription of psychotropic, psychiatric and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs, commonly referred to as antidepressants, from trusted psychiatrists.
MacLeish, 60 percent of perpetrators of mass shootings in the US since 1970 displayed symptoms of paranoia, delusions, and depression before committing the crimes (246). Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was diagnosed with schizophrenia a few days after the shooting, and James Holmes, the Aurora, California movie theatre shooter was seeing a psychiatrist for schizophrenia before his shooting (Metzl and MacLeish 246). About half of mass shootings are done by people who have been declared to have a severe mental illness, mostly schizophrenia, and because of these incidences, they shed light on mental health networks as well as improved state laws and procedures regarding gun access (Metzl and MacLeish 246). Michael Bostwick stated that, “taking guns away from the mentally ill won’t eliminate mass shootings unless such efforts are linked to larger prevention efforts” (qtd in Metzl and MacLeish 246). Some would like to argue that the notion that if those who carried out the shooting would have had more psychiatric help would have prevented the shooting is more complicated than that (Metzl and MacLeish 246). Arguably though, this is a great start to look at potential solutions. These larger prevention efforts Michael mentions will further be discussed later in this paper. Of course stopping mass shooting crime is a vital goal, but it is also important to focus on polices in areas like Oakland, California who had eleven gun crimes a day in 2013 and suicides that outnumber any deaths
With mass shooting becoming more common, it is easy for politicians and the media to blame mental illness. They all use mental illness as grounds for stricter gun control laws. While some gun control laws are needed, mental illness in a very broad diagnosis to put restrictions on. By doing this the patient’s rights are being violated and the intentions of the Founding Fathers are being ignored. The main goal for mental health patients is seeking treatment, but with these restrictions, many will not seek the care they deserve. This causes more problems for the patient and society.
According to Mother (n.p), mass shooting at schools and city streets in the US has evidently turned out to be the most disturbing trend that is increasing. Numerous fires have occurred in several public spaces and have received the media coverage which gave the certain perception that gun violence is becoming the new norms (Beckett et al, n.p). One can trace the history of the mass shooting that has been experienced in the US to understand their frequency and strategies to contain them. The notion of children being killed mercilessly is arguably convincing for measures to be established to put to an end such a plague. It is true that there are laws in place to protect the children from the mass shooters, but they are continuously being broken so quickly enough thus making it difficult to come up with a permanent solution to end such a public problem. The Plague is a story revolving around a plague epidemic that was experienced in the Algerian, Oran (Camus n.p). Thousands of rats were reported to have staggered into an open and die. By the time a mild hysteria grips the population, the media mainly, the newspaper, began clamoring for actions. The streets, shopping centers, the schools, and the movie theaters have become common areas of gun violence from the mass shooters. Guns have become a new version of plague and are so in-grown within the society that the
In response to a mass shooting in an elementary school, President Obama spoke at a Nationally held conference on mental health. Obama said, “Too many Americans who struggle with mental health illnesses are still suffering in silence,” (Jackson). He expounds on the idea that the mass shooting was not a result of mental health illnesses, but rather situational mental effects and a plan to seek attention. According to Obama, inflicting harm on others is not the nature of mental illness victims (Jackson). There is a need for understanding and factual knowledge mental health.
People assume that the perpetrators of these crimes have a mental illness, but having a mental illness is not a good predictor of who will commit this kind of crime. One of the top predictors of impending violent behavior is previous violent behavior. And a crucial warning sign of someone who might commit a mass shooting is domestic violence. With that being said, not all mass shooters have committed domestic violence, but many of them have. An example of a mass shooter who was domestically violent is Omar Mateen. He was the perpetrator of the anti-LGBTQ mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. After the event, his ex-wife told the media that he had violently abused her during their brief marriage. Even though most offenders have been domestically violent, they tend not to have a criminal history (Crockett, E., 2017). Also, the perpetrators commit these crimes because of a stressor. This stressor could be as simple as getting laid-off and being rejected by a crush. Some other examples of stressors are getting a divorce, losing a loved one, or even being bullied (Brown, 2013, p. 452-452).