Treating mental illness would eliminate only four percent of violence

Evidence

Human violence is a product of a complex interplay of personal characteristics, environmental influences, precipitating events, and sometimes fortuitous occurrences. Hence, prediction of violence from personal characteristics alone is disappointing because it is founded on a truncated causal model that ignores the other interacting determinants of behavior. A causal model that omits interacting social determinants of violence is inherently limited in its predictiveness. Mental illness is only a minor factor in predict-ing gun violence (Swanson, 2011). Only about 4% of violence in its varied forms is attributable to mental illness (Monahan, 2014). If all mental illness could be cured, Monahan argues, it would leave 96% of violence that is due to other causes. Everyday gun violence has more to do with fights for proprietary rights over lucrative illegal drug markets, gang warfare, organized crime, and other subcultural norms that legitimize gun use and ready access to lethal firearms. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1274

Categorization

• XREF: Directly undermines the attribution-of-blame mechanism claimed in 1269, supporting the existing vault claim about scapegoating rather than genuine cause. — connects to: Mental illness is not a major driver of extremism on its own — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 150; Extremists show no elevated mental illness rates relative to the general population — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 150
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1274