Violent crime attributable to mental illness is increasing at an alarming rate. On Tuesday, a mentally ill woman slashed a toddler with a butcher knife in Omaha. Police shot and killed the suspect, who was in court two years earlier and found not guilty by reason of insanity of breaking into a church rectory.

A few days earlier, a machete-wielding man who identified as Lucifer stabbed three commuters at New York City’s Grand Central Station before police intervened and shot him. Authorities report the suspect had no history of being an “emotionally disturbed person,” but his words and actions made his mental illness self-evident.

On April 7, it was learned that the suspect in the August, 2025 murder of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, was found “incapable to proceed” with his trial. The competency question has not yet been adjudicated, but the prospect of this man avoiding trial because of mental health problems is raising eyebrows.

These incidents represent the extremes of mental disorders, but there are tens of millions of Americans currently suffering from some form of mental illness, the most common among them being anxiety and depression. Assuming data from the World Health Organization is accurate, nearly one out of every seven people you pass on a busy sidewalk is suffering from a mental disorder.

More concerning still is that people suffering from depression are more prone to violence. A 2015 Swedish study found that “People diagnosed with depression are roughly........

© Townhall