In an essay on the Newtown killings, visiting scholar Edward Mulvey argues that it is extremely difficult for mental health professionals to predict when patients with mental disorders may turn to violence. "There are a large number of withdrawn, socially awkward young men in our society; some have mental disorders and some don't," Mulvey writes. "We simply cannot predict which ones will go on a shooting rampage. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack; you will probably only know where it is when it pricks your finger."

Mulvey, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, argues that policymakers and families should instead focus on providing support and treatment to those with a mental illness:

We will only know what is happening in a troubled person's mind by talking to them regularly before they are desperate. The idea of identifying, ostracizing and restricting them is not only inhuman, but impossible. We need to embrace them as members of our community who are facing immense struggles.

Read Mulvey's essay here. During his time here at Russell Sage, Mulvey is continuing his work on the Pathways to Desistance project, a longitudinal survey of serious adolescent offenders as they transition from adolescence into early adulthood.