January 1, 2016
Berkeley Social Welfare Professor and Associate Dean of Research Jennifer Skeem's newly published article, "Psychosis uncommonly and inconsistently precedes violence among high-risk individuals," co-authored with Patrick Kennealy (University of South Florida), John Monahan (University of Virginia), Gillian Peterson (Metropolitan State University) and Paul Appelbaum (Columbia University), indicate that hallucinations and delusions associated with psychiatric disorders seldom foreshadow acts of aggression
"High-profile mass shootings capture public attention and increase vigilance of people with mental illness," said Dr. Skeem. "But our findings clearly show that psychosis rarely leads directly to violence."