The letter to the editor “Patricide and schizophrenia – A case report”, published in the last issue of the Archives of Clinical Psychiatry, addresses an issue that has always concerned forensic psychiatry, namely the relationship between mental disorder and violent crimes. Besides this long-standing professional debate, such cases attract much attention in the mass media, which exposes us daily to movie depictions of crazed killers – linking violence to mental illness in the public perception by showing mental disorder in particular in the light of unpredictability and dangerousness. However, one shouldn’t overlook the fact that most mentally ill people never commit violent crimes and schizophrenia is not a sufficient cause for violence. Besides, schizophrenia as a nosological construct encompasses most heterogeneous psychopathological conditions that vary considerably with respect to core signs and symptoms, psychiatric comorbidity and social adjustment.