"Attentional deficit disorder" regarding violence

July 31, 2012

Commenting to a Discovery News reporter, Professor of Anthropology and International Studies Catherine Lutz called for more nuanced assessment of violent risk. Lutz responded to the public's dramatically increased attention to violent crime in the wake of a midnight shooting in a Colorado movie theater earlier this month.

"We need to ask why we're paying attention to this risk now after this one case where a dozen people died, even though that many people times 10 died in car crashes today and that many people times some number died at the hands of a partner today," she said. "We have attentional deficit disorder regarding certain kinds of violent risks."