Whenever the Global Peace Index measures personal safety and peace across the globe, SA appears as one of the most crime-ridden spots on Earth, and has, in particular, one of the highest murder rates.

This is often put down to the country’s tortured past, the grinding poverty experienced by many, and the ongoing inequality more than two decades after apartheid.

But, according to local forensic psychologists, not enough attention has been paid to the issue of mental illnesses in individuals and, more specifically, the fact that these can manifest differently in different cultures...