Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by whats_a_quasar 1043 days ago
Schizophrenics are less violent than the general population. In general, schizophrenia is not dangerous to others around, even untreated. People who are in a psychotic episode act oddly, which can scare others, but the perception of danger comes from that erratic action, not from actual danger.
1 comments

"Individuals with schizophrenia are 4 to 7 times more likely to commit violent crimes, such as assault and homicide [4,5], and 4 to 6 times more likely to exhibit general aggressive behavior, such as verbal and physical threats [10,11], compared with the general population."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6852683/

That isn't to say that schizophrenia necessarily causes the violent behavior: the two variables might not have any causal relationship at all. But the correlation is there.

Huh! Thanks for the reference. I think that my perception was based on one of the studies the review mentions that found schizophrenics weren't more violent. Wasn't aware of this other research.
I've read disengenuous claims that they're less violent, but omit any mention of per capita risk.