Depressed minds, dastardly acts: violence and depression

Abstract

There are biological and social roots to both depression and violent behaviour. Hence it is only reasonable to suppose that any relationship between the two has to be explored in terms of both aspects, and any consideration in exclusively biological or social terms would be invalid and misleading. The study of violence is further complicated by the fact that its public manifestation is limited by legal considerations and can be studied only within the framework of existing social convention. It is of some interest that two of the more public forms of violence to pre-occupy Britain in recent years, violence associated with supporters of football teams and child abuse, both have considerable sociological interest apart from raising obvious legal points. This complexity is unfortunately not always reflected in the literature on violence, where it is sadly rare for a worker to take an overview of the problem in all its legal, psychological, social and biological aspects.