Jeffrey Swanson
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Jeffrey W. Swanson | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 24, 1957 |
| Education | Westmont College (B.A., 1979), Yale University (M.A., 1980, Ph.D., 1985) |
| Awards | See below |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Psychiatry, medical sociology |
| Institutions | Duke University School of Medicine |
| Thesis | The moral career of the missionary (1985) |
Jeffrey W. Swanson (born March 24, 1957)[1] is an American medical sociologist and professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. He is an expert in psychiatric epidemiology, especially as regards the epidemiology of violence and serious mental illness.[2][3]
Swanson received his B.A. from Westmont College in sociology in 1979.[4] He later received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University in 1980 and 1985, respectively.[3] His PhD was in sociology and his dissertation was entitled "The Moral Career of the Missionary,"[5] later published by Oxford University Press as a book titled "Echoes of the Call: Identity and Ideology among American Missionaries in Ecuador."[6]
Career
Swanson first became interested in the intersection between mental illness and violence when working at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston shortly after finishing graduate school.[7] In 1991, he joined Duke as a medical center instructor. Since 2007, he has been a tenured professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences there.[4]
Research
Swanson has co-authored over 250 articles and book chapters on subjects such as the epidemiology of violence and mental illness, the effectiveness of community-based interventions for people with serious psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, and causes of gun violence, as well as policies aimed at reducing it.[3] In 1990, he led a study that found that, when excluding substance abusers, 33% of adults with mental illness reported having behaved violently at any time in the past, as compared with only 15 percent of non-mentally-ill people. The same study found that substance abuse was a strong predictor of violence.[8][9] This study has been criticized for overstating the connection between serious mental illness and violence.[10] In 2015, he led a study that found that 8.9% of those interviewed, which would equate to roughly 22 million Americans, had both impulsive anger issues—meaning they developed "explosive, uncontrollable rage" when provoked—and easy access to guns in their homes.[11][12] In 2016, he led a study analyzing data from two Florida counties that found that 72% of mentally ill people who committed suicide with a gun purchased it legally.[13][14][15] Later that year, he published a study evaluating a 1999 Connecticut law allowing police to remove guns from people believed to be at risk of suicide. The study found that one suicide was prevented for every 10 to 20 guns seized under the law.[16][17]
