Psychiatric illness in homicide victims

The authors studied the demographic characteristics and history of psychiatric treatment of 214 homicide victims and 67 suicide victims. Thirty-two (15%) of the homicide victims and 12 (18%) of the suicide victims had a record of psychiatric care; these rates were higher than the treatment rate of the general population. The authors suggest that there may be a connection between the occurrence of homicide and the increased frequency of psychiatric disorders among victims of this crime.