Homicides Drop, Suicides Rise in England

Leave it to the Brits to keep tabs on how many people who are mentally ill become homicidal and then compare these figures to the number of suicides.  In the UK, if you try to kill yourself, you are considered mentally ill.

There were only 33 homicides caused by mentally ill patients in 2010, the lowest number in a decade.  However, suicides rose to 1,333.  Suicide numbers also rose in Scotland and Northern Ireland.  The most popular method of suicide was hanging.  The rise in suicide numbers is attributed to two things:

• rise in England’s overall population
• worsening economic situation after worldwide recession of 2008

The report was put together by the University of Manchester and published in the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness (NCI).  This report is done every year.

Schizophrenics were the main murderers in the report, being responsible for 22 of the 33 confirmed murders by mentally ill patients.

The report also estimates that around 200 to 300 mentally ill patients did not commit suicide because they got help or were forced to get help from concerned loved ones.

Suicide in this case is considered separate from euthanasia.

I tried to find similar numbers of homicides caused by the mentally ill for America, but could not.  I did find out that, according to The Atlantic, anyway, that the mentally ill are five times more likely to be homicide victims.  Man, mentally ill patients just can’t get a break.