Jeffrey Swanson

thumb|Jeffrey SwansonDuke University {{short description|American medical sociologist}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Jeffrey W. Swanson | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1957|03|24}} | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = Psychiatry, medical sociology | workplaces = Duke University School of Medicine | patrons = | education = Westmont College (B.A., 1979), Yale University (M.A., 1980, Ph.D., 1985) | alma_mater = | thesis_title = The moral career of the missionary | thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/18427586 | thesis_year = 1985 | doctoral_advisor =  | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = See below | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }} '''Jeffrey W. Swanson''' (born March 24, 1957)<ref>{{cite web | url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n94103222 | title=Jeffrey Swanson | work=Library of Congress | access-date=16 January 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wciconferences.com/aott/bios/Swanson_J-Bio.pdf |title=Jeffrey W. Swanson Bio |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203002455/http://www.wciconferences.com/aott/bios/Swanson_J-Bio.pdf |archive-date=3 February 2016 |access-date=16 January 2016}}</ref><ref name="duke">{{Cite web |url=http://psychiatry.duke.edu/faculty/details/0112411 |title=Jeffrey Swanson |website=Duke University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304143041/http://psychiatry.duke.edu/faculty/details/0112411 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=16 January 2016}}</ref>

==Education== Swanson received his B.A. from Westmont College in sociology in 1979.<ref name="cv">Swanson, Jeffrey W. "Curriculum Vitae". Chapel Hill, NC: Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, 2017. https://sph.unc.edu/files/2017/11/swanson_hpmcv.pdf</ref> He later received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University in 1980 and 1985, respectively.<ref name="duke" /> His PhD was in sociology and his dissertation was entitled "The Moral Career of the Missionary,"<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Swanson |first=Jeffrey |date=1985 |title=The moral career of the missionary |publisher=Yale University |oclc= 18427586 }}</ref> later published by Oxford University Press as a book titled "Echoes of the Call: Identity and Ideology among American Missionaries in Ecuador."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Echoes of the Call: Identity and Ideology Among American Missionaries in Ecuador|last=Swanson|first=Jeffrey|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1995|isbn=0-19-506823-8|location=New York and Oxford|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/echoesofcalliden0000swan}}</ref>

==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.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/almost-link-mental-health-gun-violence | title=Is There A Link Between Mental Health and Gun Violence? | magazine=The New Yorker | date=19 November 2014 | access-date=16 January 2016 | author=Konnikova, Maria}}</ref> In 1991, he joined Duke as a medical center instructor. Since 2007, he has been a tenured professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences there.<ref name=cv/>

==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.<ref name="duke" /> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Swanson|first1=Jeffrey W.|last2=Holzer|first2=Charles E.|last3=Ganju|first3=Vijay K.|last4=Jono|first4=Robert Tsutomu|title=Violence and Psychiatric Disorder in the Community: Evidence From the Epidemiologic Catchment Area Surveys|journal=Psychiatric Services|date=July 1990|volume=41|issue=7|pages=761–770|doi=10.1176/ps.41.7.761|pmid=2142118}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/us/when-the-right-to-bear-arms-includes-the-mentally-ill.html | title=When the Right to Bear Arms Includes the Mentally Ill | work=The New York Times | date=22 December 2013 | access-date=17 January 2016 | author=Luo, Michael}}</ref> This study has been criticized for overstating the connection between serious mental illness and violence.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Metzl|first1=Jonathan M.|last2=MacLeish|first2=Kenneth T.|title=Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms|journal=American Journal of Public Health|date=February 2015|volume=105|issue=2|pages=240–249|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2014.302242|pmid=25496006|pmc=4318286}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Swanson|first1=Jeffrey W.|last2=Sampson|first2=Nancy A.|last3=Petukhova|first3=Maria V.|last4=Zaslavsky|first4=Alan M.|last5=Appelbaum|first5=Paul S.|last6=Swartz|first6=Marvin S.|last7=Kessler|first7=Ronald C.|title=Guns, Impulsive Angry Behavior, and Mental Disorders: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R)|journal=Behavioral Sciences & the Law|date=June 2015|volume=33|issue=2–3|pages=199–212|doi=10.1002/bsl.2172|pmc=5116908|pmid=25850688}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/08/nearly-1-in-10-americans-have-severe-anger-issues-and-access-to-guns/ | title=Nearly 1 in 10 Americans have severe anger issues and access to guns | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=8 April 2015 | access-date=16 January 2016 | author=Ingraham, Christopher}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Swanson|first1=J. W.|last2=Easter|first2=M. M.|last3=Robertson|first3=A. G.|last4=Swartz|first4=M. S.|last5=Alanis-Hirsch|first5=K.|last6=Moseley|first6=D.|last7=Dion|first7=C.|last8=Petrila|first8=J.|title=Gun Violence, Mental Illness, And Laws That Prohibit Gun Possession: Evidence From Two Florida Counties|journal=Health Affairs|date=6 June 2016|volume=35|issue=6|pages=1067–1075|doi=10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0017|pmc=5154170|pmid=27269024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/06/mentally-ill-easily-buy-guns-study-says.html | title=Mentally Ill Easily Buy Guns, Study Says | work=The Daily Beast | date=6 June 2016 | access-date=14 June 2016 | author=Fu, Megan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/untangling-gun-violence-from-mental-illness/485906/ |title=Untangling Gun Violence from Mental Illness |last=Beck |first=Julie |website=The Atlantic |publication-date=7 June 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref name="d022">{{cite journal | last1=Swanson | first1=Jeffrey W. | last2=Norko | first2=Michael A. | last3=Lin | first3=Hsiu-Ju | last4=Alanis-Hirsch | first4=Kelly | last5=Frisman | first5=Linda K. | last6=Baranoski | first6=Madelon V. | last7=Easter | first7=Michele M. | last8=Robertson | first8=Allison G. | last9=Swartz | first9=Marvin S. | last10=Bonnie | first10=Richard J. | title=Implementation and Effectiveness of Connecticut's Risk-Based Gun Removal Law: Does It Prevent Suicides? | journal=Law and Contemporary Problems | publisher=Duke University School of Law | volume=80 | issue=2 | year=2017 | issn=0023-9186 | jstor=45020002 | pages=179–208 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/45020002 | access-date=2024-08-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.courant.com/politics/capitol-watch/hc-new-report-says-connecticut-gun-removal-law-prevented-dozens-of-suicides-20161117-story.html |title=New Report Says Connecticut Gun Removal Law Prevented Dozens of Suicides |last=Altimari |first=Daniela |website=Hartford Courant |publication-date=17 November 2016}}</ref>

==Views== Shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Swanson told ''The New York Times'' that "Psychiatrists, using clinical judgment, are not much better than chance at predicting which individual patients will do something violent and which will not.”<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/health/a-misguided-focus-on-mental-illness-in-gun-control-debate.html | title=In Gun Debate, a Misguided Focus on Mental Illness | work=The New York Times | date=18 December 2012 | access-date=16 January 2016 | author=Friedman, Richard}}</ref> The following January, he told ''The Washington Post'' that “there’s a modest relative risk” for violence among people with a serious mental illness.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/predicting-violence-is-a-work-in-progress/2013/01/03/2e8955b8-5371-11e2-a613-ec8d394535c6_story.html | title=Predicting violence is a work in progress | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=3 January 2013 | access-date=17 January 2016 | author=Brown, David}}</ref>

==Awards and honors== Swanson received the 2020 Isaac Ray Award from the American Psychiatric Association Foundation and the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law for outstanding contributions to the psychiatric aspects of jurisprudence. He received the 2011 Carl Taube Award from the American Public Health Association and the 2010 Eugene C. Hargrove, MD Award from the North Carolina Psychiatric Foundation for his career in researching mental health. He was awarded a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation in 2013, and an Independent Research Scientist Career Award from the National Institute of Mental Health in 2004.<ref name="duke" /> Swanson delivered the P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Lecture in Law and Psychiatry at the University of Virginia School of Law in 2015 and the Raymond W. Waggoner Lecture on Ethics and Values in Medicine at the University of Michigan in 2016.

==References== {{Reflist|30em}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swanson, Jeffrey}} Category:Living people Category:Duke University School of Medicine faculty Category:American psychiatrists Category:Westmont College alumni Category:Yale University alumni Category:Medical sociologists Category:American sociologists Category:American epidemiologists Category:Gun violence researchers Category:1957 births