BMJ  2004;328 (27 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7442.0-c

Tackling drug and alcohol misuse could reduce stranger homicides

"Stranger homicides" are most commonly committed byyoung men, and drugs and alcohol make the offence more likely. Shaw and colleagues (p 734) analysed 1594 homicides in England and Wales between 1996 and 1999. They found that 358 (22%) homicides were stranger homicides, and the largest single cause was fights. Perpetrators of stranger homicides were more likely to have a history of drug and alcohol misuse than to have a mental illness or to have been under mental health care. The policy of care in the community does not increase the risk of stranger homicide by people with mental illness, say the authors; measures directed at curtailing alcohol and drug misuse have more potential for prevention.

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Mental illness in people who kill strangers: longitudinal study and national clinical survey

Jenny Shaw, Tim Amos, Isabelle M Hunt, Sandra Flynn, Pauline Turnbull, Navneet Kapur, and Louis Appleby
BMJ 2004 328: 734-737. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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