Centers

Dr. Link is a professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, Research Associate at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Director of the Center for Violence Research and Prevention. Trained in sociology (PhD 1980), psychiatric epidemiology (NIMH fellowship 1975-1979) and biostatistics (MS 1982), he has broad interdisciplinary interests, including the impact of social inequality and stigma on a range of health outcomes and the connection between psychotic symptoms and violent behaviors.

Dr. Link was awarded a prestigious Health Policy Investigator Award to support work on his idea about social conditions as fundamental causes of disease, and is extending these ideas to violence in his Center-related work. Dr. Link’s research activities in the Center focus on the interplay between mental health and violent behaviors. In particular, he is investigating the role of psychotic symptoms in violent behaviors and the idea that people act on delusional beliefs and respond to command hallucinations in ways that promote violence.