General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I have a brother with schizophrenia and I am sick of the bigotry against the mentally ill [View all]JVS
(61,935 posts)Most violent crimes are committed by perfectly sane people who commit them for economic gain or because they've gotten themselves into a situation where violence is a means of promoting their self interest. Stuff like muggings, robbery, criminal dealings gone awry, witness intimidation/killing, drug dealing turf wars, etc. These are not mentally ill people. These are people who use violence toward a rational albeit illegal end. These things happen daily in major metripolitan areas and usually fail to get much attention beyond a brief story in the news.
The "really heinous things that have been done" are less frequent but attract way more attention. I suspect they attract more attention because while most of the violence seems to be the kind of thing that you can dramatically decrease your chances of suffering by being cautious and "keeping out of trouble", there specter of being randomly victimized by someone on a spree seems less easily preventable. Of course a lot of the victims of "normal" crimes are hapless victims of circumstance as well.