A forensic psychiatrist has debunked five myths about murderers in a YouTube video, and some of them may surprise you.
London-based forensic psychiatrist Dr Sohom Das, 44, has a channel called A Psych for Sore Minds, where he covers a range of topics related to mental health and crime.
He opened the video by explaining: ‘I am a consultant forensic psychiatrist. I evaluate mentally ill offenders for a living…so just to give you some context, I speak from my own clinical experience.
‘I work as an expert witness. I testify in a wide range of cases, different crimes, different mental illnesses. I speak in court during criminal trials. I do about 50 cases a year, and about four or five of them are murder-related and I’ve been doing this for about 10 years…’
A forensic psychiatrist has debunked five myths about murderers, including the myth that they all suffer from serious mental illness (file image)
He continued: ‘And I have also worked in many psychiatric units. I’ve probably cared for about 50 men, and they’re mostly men who have killed someone in the past, usually in relation to their illness, because that’s why they came to psychiatric units in the first place.’
Dr. Das, 44, said the first myth he wanted to debunk is that all murderers must be mentally ill.
‘Some definitely have mental health diagnoses, but most don’t. Those in the psychiatric units, obviously, yes.
He went on to explain that “it depends on how you define mental illness.”
“If you’re not an expert, you could say that anyone who does something as extreme as killing another person, especially someone they don’t know, is mentally ill,” Dr. Das explained.
But that is not the psychiatric definition. The psychiatric definition is someone who has to have a recognized mental disorder such as depression, bipolar, schizophrenia… and of all murderers, only a very small proportion have those things.
“And here’s something that puts the cake in the ointment: even if they have symptoms of mental illness, or if they are mentally ill, most of the time, they are fairly mild symptoms… not serious enough to control their actions” .
To put it in context, he explained: ‘Let’s say there was a group murder. So you have two sons… who live in south London. There’s a lot of back and forth… one of them stabbed and killed another.
The second myth that Dr. Sohom Das addressed was that most people are murdered by strangers. In fact, most people are murdered by people they know, especially women (file image)
“More than likely, the killer, if he was in a gang, probably has some underlying trauma.” He probably has some degree of anxiety and depression, he probably also has…substance abuse issues.
‘But I think most people would agree that they are still in control of their actions. So what I’m saying is that just because you have a mental illness doesn’t necessarily equate to any kind of psychiatric defense for serious mental illnesses that do have a psychiatric defense, like diminished responsibility or not guilty for reasons of sanity. ‘
The second myth he analyzed was that most murderers kill strangers.
He explained: “That’s true, but more often than not it’s not true.” So there are cases (like that)… that shock the nation because (it can happen to) complete strangers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“But you’re much more likely to be killed by someone you know, especially if you’re young and especially if you’re a woman.”
According to Dr. Das: The The Office for National Statistics said that in the year ending March 2020, which is when the most recent statistics are available, 62 per cent of murder victims knew their killer, and this was higher for women: 70 percent compared to male victims. 52 percent, and for victims under 16, the proportion who knew their suspects was even higher: about 88 percent.
According to the expert, myth number three is that murderers will kill again.
But he said: “In reality, it is very unlikely that someone who has been killed before will kill again.”
Moving on to myth number four, he said it is that ‘Serial killers are these brilliant criminal masterminds.
“I understand,” Dr. Das said. ‘I really understand it. It’s like a stylish, interesting, sexy, cool movie or TV show.
‘If you have this kind of really intelligent provocative serial killer who leaves clues. This is like a game of bat and mouse. And then you have this homicide detective who may or may not have a problem with alcohol and, you know, it’s like a game of cognitive-emotional chess and they try to outsmart each other.’
He added that about 40 percent of serial killers have low IQs, live on the fringes of society and attack their victims at random.
‘So (there’s not that kind of pre-planned effort, stalking people over a long period… they just have this frantic desire and rage to kill, so they go out and do it randomly.
‘Often they don’t move the bodies, they literally just leave the scene, they try to hide. Or they try to disguise evidence of the trend because they just want to get out.
The expert’s fifth and final myth about murderers is that… “they are all inherently evil or they are all monsters” – he explained only one of the situations he was involved in where this was not the case (archive image)
“So what I’m saying is that all those things are not in accordance with this method that is the criminal mastermind.”
Dr. Das’ fifth and final myth about murderers is that… “they are all inherently evil or they are all monsters.”
He added: “To me, this paints a simplistic and damaging picture.” People who have taken their own lives before come from diverse backgrounds, have different motivations, experiences, and different mental states.
“So judging them solely on this act ignores the complexity of their life and circumstances, and even excludes morality.”
He added: “I guess what I’m saying is that someone may have done something horrendous and it doesn’t necessarily reflect their entire personality or character.”
Dr Sohom Das (pictured) is a London-based forensic psychiatrist who also creates YouTube content on his channel A Psych for Sore Minds.
He gave an example that he wrote about in his book In Two Minds: Stories of Murder, Justice and Recovery from a Forensic Psychiatrist.
‘I’ll call her Yasmin, she was 18 and killed her nephew in a flash of psychosis.
‘She was really mentally ill and thought he had demons inside him. She didn’t try to cover her tracks. She was shocked when the police arrested her because in her psychotic, delusional mind she thought she had done nothing wrong.
But the thing is, she’s not a horrible antisocial person. What she did was horrible. I can’t deny it, but deep down she is not an evil person.
Dr. Sohom Das can be found at Twitter, instagramand Tik Tokas well as YouTube.