96% of violent crimes committed by people with no mental health problems

Time to stop using mental illness as something to blame. Tired of hearing this is all about mentally ill people especially when many want to link murders to PTSD after Chris Kyle was killed by a veteran he was trying to help.

We have hundreds of thousands of diagnosed PTSD veterans and many more still not getting help or the diagnosis but we read about so few of them involved with crimes. We read more about them harming themselves by attempting suicide and too many succeeding at it.

Fox News Inverts Evidence To Link Mental Health With Mass Murder
Media Matters
February 5, 2013
BRIAN THORN

Fox News' Martha MacCallum exaggerated the relationship between mental health and gun violence by suggesting advocates for stronger gun laws focus on the few individuals with mental health conditions who commit mass killings instead of the widely available weapons that they used.

On the February 5 edition of America's Newsroom, MacCallum pushed the debunked myth that mental health is a common variable among violent criminals by listing recent mass shooters. MacCallum highlighted four perpetrators of mass shootings, and said, "You look at the people who've carried out these heinous crimes and killed so many innocent children. ... All of these have mental health issues." MacCallum went on to criticize President Obama for focusing on stronger gun laws rather than mental health in his policy response to the Newtown, CT, mass shooting.

According to the National Journal, "96 percent of violent crimes -- defined by the FBI as murders, robberies, rapes, and aggravated assaults -- are committed by people without any mental-health problems at all." From the National Journal:

Although people with serious mental illness have committed a large percentage of high-profile crimes, the mentally ill represent a very small percentage of the perpetrators of violent crime overall. Researchers estimate that if mental illness could be eliminated as a factor in violent crime, the overall rate would be reduced by only 4 percent. That means 96 percent of violent crimes -- defined by the FBI as murders, robberies, rapes, and aggravated assaults -- are committed by people without any mental-health problems at all. Solutions that focus on reducing crimes by the mentally ill will make only a small dent in the nation's rate of gun-related murders, ranging from mass killings to shootings that claim a single victim.

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