New publication from Deakin Criminologists Richard Evans, Clare Farmer and Jessica Saligari
Dr Clare Farmer
Dr Richard Evans
A team of Deakin researchers, Dr Richard Evans, Dr Clare Farmer and Jessica Saligari, have published in the journal Violence and Gender with a paper entitled, Mental Illness and Gun Violence: Lessons for the United States from Australia and Britain. In the United States, the nexus between mental illness and shootings has been the subject of heated argument. An extreme expression of one point of view is that “guns don’t kill people, the mentally ill do”. Examining statistical data on mental illness, homicide and civilian deaths caused by police across the United States, Australia and Britain the authors conclude that the problem does not lie with the mentally ill potential offender. Rather, the fewer guns there are in a community, whether in the hands of civilians or of police, the safer that community is.