New study suggests mass shooters are not necessarily insane

Researchers with the University of Missouri School of Medicine are offering a new definition for behaviors relating to violent acts called”extreme overvalued belief.”

People often assume mental illness could be reason people commit violent acts like mass shootings but the researchers said that extreme belief is what can lead them to criminal actions.

“When these types of tragedies occur, we question the reason behind them,” Tahir Rahman, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at the MU School of Medicine and lead author of the study, said in a press release. “Sometimes people think that violent actions must be the byproduct of psychotic mental illness, but this is not always the case.”

The person can use the Internet or other ways to reaffirm this belief and that may cause them to act violently, instead of it just being for reason of insanity.

“They find support there, they find justification for their anger and some of their belief systems,” said Paul Fennewald, a former Missouri Homeland Security coordinator. “That helps get them spun up even to even a higher level until they clear that thresh hold and then rather than just thinking about it, they’re ready to go out and do something about it.”

The researchers used a Norwegian terror attack from 2011 as a basis for their findings. Breivik killed 77 people in a car bombing in Oslo and a mass shooting at a youth camp on the island ofUtya.

He had claimed to be a “savior of Christianity” and that the reason for his attacks was to save Europe from multiculturalism.

Breivik had two psychological evaluations. The first team diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. The second team concluded he was not psychotic and instead diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder.

“Breivik believed that killing innocent people was justifiable, which seems irrational and psychotic,” said Rahman in the release. “However, some people without psychotic mental illness feel so strongly about their beliefs that they take extreme actions.”

Rahman said there is still more research to do relating to extreme overvalued beliefs. But he said there should be a way for mental health professionals to warn people about the risks and help before the violent behavior happens.

“Can we go into places of worship, community centers, schools, universities, to bring this information to the forefront so people can understand what an extreme over valued belief is and more importantly how it gets there?” said Rahman.

Fennewald said there needs to be a community effort as well to keep an eye on friends and family in order to hold them accountable or notice behavioral problems before they escalate to violence.