Science News for Writers

Inside the minds of murderers:   Impulsive murderers much more mentally impaired than those who kill strategically The minds of murderers who kill impulsively, often out of rage, and those who carefully carry out premeditated crimes differ markedly both psychologically and intellectually, according to a new study. The minds of murderers who kill impulsively, often out of rage, and those who carefully carry out premeditated crimes differ markedly both psychologically and intellectually, according to a study by Northwestern Medicine® researcher Robert Hanlon. "Impulsive murderers were much more mentally impaired, particularly cognitively impaired, in terms of both their intelligence and other cognitive functions," said Hanlon, senior author of the study and associate professor of clinical psychiatry and clinical neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "The predatory and premeditated murderers did not typically show any major intellect...

For any writer, not just true crime and murder mystery writers, the changing nature of violent crime in the U.S. is of importance.  Add to that the media's obsession with reporting violent crime as part of their ongoing efforts to pump up ratings, it's sometimes difficult to have a realistic understanding of what is actually going on. These are the latest numbers from the Journal of the American Medical Association, with a link to the full study in the attribution . *  *  *  *  * Progress has been made in reducing rates of  violence in US; overall numbers remain high Even though homicide and assault rates have decreased in the U.S. in recent years, the number of these and other types of violent acts remains high, according to a report in the August 4, 2015 issue of JAMA, a violence/human rights theme issue. The authors write that multiple strategies exist to improve interpersonal violence prevention efforts, and health care providers are an impo...

" The perception that people with mental illness are more violent is a myth reinforced by the media ." To understand the violence inherent in human society, especially the many mass shootings in our country in addition to our world's-highest murder rate, it's important that screenwriters, authors and journalists understand what causes - and what doesn't cause - someone to kill someone else. One of the common misconceptions with both the public, journalists, writers of fiction and screenplays is that mental illness is a major cause of violence, especially murder . This conclusion does not compute, to quote science officer Spock of the Starship Enterprise. In fact, research shows that the mentally ill are more likely to be the victims of crime rather than the perpetrators. As writers, we each have a responsibility to present accurate and true profiles of killers and mass murderers in our work.  By stating or implying that anyone who commits a viol...