Based on author's thesis (doctoral - University of Manchester, 2014) issued under title: Looking through the reeds: system-theorising the Independent homicide inquiry.

A homicide committed by a mentally disordered person who is under the care of health service professionals is a shocking event. Otherwise known as a 'patient homicide', these incidents are followed by an investigation into the care and treatment received by the perpetrator. These investigations are often regarded as a way to 'learn lessons', establish accountability and provide catharsis to families and the public. The book argues however that patient homicide events and the circumstances in which they occur are communicated about within closed systems of life (eg law, medicine). These systems operate according to unique internal logics. The communications produced by these systems, nevertheless, resonate in society and enable a diverse and complex space of governance to emerge – a space of governance in which universal understandings about patient homicides, health care, public safety and risk are unachievable. The Scottish Government initiated reform of their patient homicide investigation procedures in 2017 and plans to reform patient homicide investigations in England are slowly germinating. This original and compelling book is therefore a timely and important contribution. It concludes that health policy makers should re-evaluate their normative commitments to patient homicide risk reduction in a world of disharmony, objection and resistance.

Human psychological and physical well-being is damaged and destroyed when people are deliberately killed by other people. There are millions of primary and secondary victims of murder throughout the world, and human society as a whole is a tertiary victim of murder. Despite this, people are often fascinated and engrossed by stories of homicide and killers. This book provides a fascinating exploration of murder, providing an insight into what leads people to kill and what effect this has on society as a whole. This book is organized into five chapters that each answer a specific question on murder: What is Murder? Who Commits Murder? Why Commit Murder? Why is Murder Devastating? Why is Murder Fascinating?

Jonathan Foiles weaves together psychology and public policy, exploring the trauma underlying urbanization in a book Kirkus Reviews calls an "urgent call for reform." When Jonathan Foiles was a graduate studen

Understanding Homicide is a comprehensive and challenging text unravelling the phenomenon of homicide. The author combines original analysis with a lucid overview of the key theories and debates in the study of homicide and violence. In introducing the broad spectrum of different features, aspects and forms of homicide, Fiona Brookman examines its patterns and trends, how it may be explained, its investigation and how it may be prevented. The book is unique in its focus, coverage, and style and bridges a major gap in criminological literature. While focused in several respects upon the UK experience of homicide, the text necessarily draws upon and makes a significant contribution to international literature, research and debate.

Perhaps never before has an objective, evidence-based review of the intersection between gun violence and mental illness been more sorely needed or more timely. Gun Violence and Mental Illness, written by a multidisciplinary roster of authors who are leaders in the fields of mental health, public health, and public policy, is a practical guide to the issues surrounding the relation between firearms deaths and mental illness. Tragic mass shootings that capture headlines reinforce the mistaken beliefs that people with mental illness are violent and responsible for much of the gun violence in the United States. This misconception stigmatizes individuals with mental illness and distracts us from the awareness that approximately 65% of all firearm deaths each year are suicides. This book is an apolitical exploration of the misperceptions and realities that attend gun violence and mental illness. The authors frame both pressing social issues as public health problems subject to a variety of interventions on individual and collective levels, including utilization of a novel perspective: evidence-based interventions focusing on assessments and indicators of dangerousness, with or without indications of mental illness. Reader-friendly, well-structured, and accessible to professional and lay audiences, the book: * Reviews the epidemiology of gun violence and its relationship to mental illness, exploring what we know about those who perpetrate mass shootings and school shootings. * Examines the current legal provisions for prohibiting access to firearms for those with mental illness and whether these provisions and new mandated reporting interventions are effective or whether they reinforce negative stereotypes associated with mental illness. * Discusses the issues raised in accessing mental health treatment in regard to diminished treatment resources, barriers to access, and involuntary commitment.* Explores novel interventions for addressing these issues from a multilevel and multidisciplinary public health perspective that does not stigmatize people with mental illness. This includes reviews of suicide risk assessment; increasing treatment engagement; legal, social, and psychiatric means of restricting access to firearms when people are in crisis; and, when appropriate, restoration of firearm rights. Mental health clinicians and trainees will especially appreciate the risk assessment strategies presented here, and mental health, public health, and public policy researchers will find Gun Violence and Mental Illness a thoughtful and thought-provoking volume that eschews sensationalism and embraces serious scholarship.

Contributors to this volume present and discuss new data which suggest that major mental disorder substantially increases the risk of violent crime. These findings come at a crucial time, since those who suffer from mental disorders are increasingly living in the community, rather than in institutions. The book describes the magnitude and complexity of the problem and offers hope that humane, effective intervention can prevent violent crime being committed by the seriously mentally disordered.

Most professional books on the subject of homicide convey a criminological or legal standpoint. Homicide: A Psychiatric Perspective complements those approaches by offering a clinical understanding unique in the literature, considering not merely the crime but the broad spectrum of homicidal behavior. Combining psychiatric knowledge of that behavior with actual case material, this work provides a single-expert point of view, synthesizing current literature while maintaining a focused perspective that not only reviews the macroscopic findings of descriptive nosology but also places the individual murderer under the microscope. This new edition considers aspects of homicidal behavior in American society that were not prominent a decade ago, as evidenced by such phenomena as the Columbine killings and public fascination with The Sopranos. Dr. Malmquist draws on his extensive background in forensic psychiatry and consultancy experience in hundreds of murder cases, blending medical, biological, psychological, and social factors to forge a psychiatric understanding of homicide in the twenty-first century. He provides insight into such key concerns as epidemiology, the ongoing difficulty of predicting homicidal behavior in psychotic individuals, and the contrasting viewpoints of psychiatry and the legal system; and he describes how various clinical psychiatric conditions such as narcissism and depression have their own special vulnerabilities for homicidal violence. The book uses DSM-IV-TR as a diagnostic framework and adds a psychodynamic component for appropriate cases, offering a broad overview of homicide today: Cases are drawn from evaluated homicidal individuals, not simply generic examples, and reflect homicides that involve a legal conviction, a confession, or clinical material beyond media reportage. New to this edition are insights into recent homicide trends such as sexual and serial murders, school killings, homicide among preadolescents, stalking, murder by health care personnel, and close-combat killings in the military. Statistical data on epidemiology have been updated, recent cases have been added, and the latest legal decisions are discussed -- all making this book as timely as it is authoritative. Homicide: A Psychiatric Perspective is an essential reference for mental health professionals as well as attorneys, correctional officers, or social workers engaged in criminal law. With its keys to evaluating patients or defendants who have engaged in serious acts of violence, it offers unprecedented clinical insights into the homicidal mind.

An introduction summarizes the social theories of homicide and the methodological issues in the study of homicide. This accessible volume then focuses on specific types of homicides including: mass and serial murders, homicides by youth, gang homicides, domestic homicides, homicides by female offenders, and alcohol/drug related homicides.

In our society, bullying is commonly seen as a normal, inescapable part of growing up that children and adolescents must simply endure. In Bullying, Suicide, and Homicide, Butch Losey challenges this viewpoint, arguing that bullying is not a part of childhood development, but rather an aberrant behavior that, for the victim, can lead to adverse decisions, such as suicide and homicide. He provides a detailed understanding of the relationship between bullying, suicide, and homicide and an assessment and response strategy that can be utilized by mental health professionals who work with children and adolescents. This strategy involves a three stage ecological approach: screening to identify warning signs for bullying, depression, suicide, and violence by means of the Bullying Lethality Identification System (BLIS), developed by Losey and a colleague; assessing the risks of suicide and threats of violence using specially tailored forms and tools; and mediating to identify appropriate interventions. All of the associated tools and forms that the author has created are included as appendices and on the accompanying downloadable resources. Losey’s sensitive and compassionate treatment of this important subject will inform and motivate mental health professionals in their work with victims of bullying.