WASHINGTON — Following is the statement of Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, CEO of the American Psychological Association, regarding a call to the administration to create a new research arm within the proposed Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (HARPA) to explore using technology to detect when people with mental illnesses are about to become violent:
“The idea for an agency focused on developing technology to improve health care and act as an innovation engine is a good one. But it is illogical to task HARPA with solving a real problem of violence by connecting it to a fallacious idea – that people with mental illness are the cause of mass shootings. Research consistently shows a weak link between mental illness and mass shootings. Furthermore, there is no science showing that technology can accurately predict violent behavior in anyone, and no data that if this were possible, such information would somehow solve our nation’s gun violence crisis. The concept of using smartphones and -watches for this purpose is scientifically unsupported, as well as alarming. The potential for false positives is extreme and the likelihood of stopping mass shootings negligible, especially weighed against Americans’ fundamental right to privacy.
“People living with mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of violence rather than the perpetrators. We need the government to focus its anti-gun violence efforts on prevention. And we need to focus on funding more research on the causes of gun violence so we can develop effective prevention strategies.”