Ch. 8 Psychology of Violence & Intimidation

Stalking

"a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated physical or visual proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written, or implied threats sufficient to cause fear in a reasonable person"

School rampage shootings

"attacks on multiple parties, selected almost at random"

Murder

"unlawful killing of one human by another with malice aforethought, either expressed or implied"

Types of school threats

(1) direct - specifies a target and is delivered in a straightforward, clear, and explicit manner. For example, a caller—sometimes a student, sometimes someone from outside—might say, "I placed a bomb in the school cafeteria, and it will go off at noon today." (2) indirect - threat is more vague and ambiguous; I could if I wanted to (3) veiled - strongly implies but does not explicitly threaten violence; we would be better off without you (4) conditional - extortion

4 categories of the cause of violence

(1) neurobiological - drug abuse, malnutrition, head trauma (2) socialization - aggressive, antisocial, and violent behaviors are often learned from significant others (including TV, movie, on-line, or fictional characters) and are held in reserve for response to specific social situations. (3) cognitive - hostile attribution bias: tend to perceive hostility in others when there is no hostility; aggressive children and adolescents have more antisocial, violent beliefs than their nonaggressive peers (4) situational factors- refer to the characteristics of the environment, such as stress or aggression in others, that encourage or engender violent behavior; excessive heat, continuous loud noise, or crowded living conditions—can provoke aggression and violence in those persons submitted to such conditions.

School shootings

- Carefully planned - Plan to kill specific group or hit list - statistically rare but immense psychological impact - Terrorist attacks at schools (schools are soft targets, haven't occurred in US)

Crime Inequalities

- High AA homicide rate - Latino violence lower than economically deprived blacks & caucasians

4 Violent crimes included in the violent crime rate

1.) Murder and non negligent manslaughter 2.) Forcible rape 3.) Robbery 4.) Aggravated assault

Instrumental violence

Acts designed to improve the financial or social position of the criminal

Bullying

Adolescents who bully others were often bullied themselves in their childhoods, so early detection and prevention are crucial aspects to be considered. Bullying also may be used as a means of gaining status among some peers; when the status is achieved, the bullying behavior no longer continues. Recent research on bullying indicates that both peer intervention (encouraging peers to speak out against it) and adequate parental education about bullying

Aggression

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

Index crimes

Crimes including murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, and larceny; 8 crimes used by FBI to categorize violent crimes

Media and violence

Exposure to dramatic violence on TV, other media, and in the movies is related to violent behavior. In addition to the hundreds of research findings, three major national studies have concluded that heavy exposure to media violence is one of the most significant causes of violence in society

Aspects of a threat assessment

Identify - be aware of markers of possible violence - report concerns to authorities Assess - Obtain/gather information from sources - talk w/ individual and their peers Appraise their current situation (home, health, etc) - underlying problem? Manage - Provide counseling/treatment for underlying problem - Make use of family conferences - warn/protect potential victims - monitor individual or obtain restraining order

UCR

In the Uniform Crime Reporting System (UCR), as discussed in the previous chapter, the four violent crimes are murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Together, reports of these crimes comprise the violent crime rate provided annually to the public

Types of Violence

Instrumental & Reactive

Gender that accounts for 87-90% of total arrests for violent crime

Males

Violence

Physical force that is used to harm people or damage property

3 Factors/ 3 Contexts that contribute to violence

Social Psychological Biological ___________________ Family Peer Community

Love obsession stalker

and their victims tend to be casual acquaintances, such as neighbors or coworkers, but such stalking may also involve complete strangers, such as a celebrity. The primary motivation of these stalkers is to establish a personal relationship with the targeted victim.

Vengeance stalker

are quite different from the other three types because they do not seek a personal relationship with their targeted victims. Instead, these stalkers try to elicit a particular response—such as fear, or change of behavior such as moving to another area—from their victims.

Erotomania stalker

considered highly delusional, and the offender is often plagued by serious mental disorders, most often schizophrenia. Erotomania stalkers believe that the relationship with their victim already exists, in contrast to the simple and love obsession stalkers.

Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP)

designed to communicate with and help the nation's law enforcement agencies to investigate, identify, track, apprehend, and prosecute violent serial offenders.

Reactive violence

expressive violence; physical violence precipitated by a hostile and angry reaction to a perceived threat or dangerous situation

Mass murder

involves the killing of three or more persons at a single location with no cooling-off period between the killings. Classic and family Compared with serial murderers, they are more likely to be mentally disordered in the clinical sense. Hopeless, younger 25-45; Attacking several or many others at one time provides these lonely, angry people a chance to get even, to dominate others, to take control, and to gain recognition. The

non-index crimes

less serious offenses such as gambling, disorderly conduct

Simple obsession stalker

most common, accounting for 60% of the stalkers. They represent behavior that is a continuation of a previous pattern of domestic violence and psychological abuse in an intimate relationship.

Threat assessments

predicting future violence or undesirable actions targeted at specific individuals or institutions after an expressed threat has been communicated - focused on preventing violence

Spree murder

refers to the killing of three or more individuals without a cooling-off period, usually at two or three different locations.

Observational learning

refers to the very strong tendency of human beings to imitate any significant or admired person or model they observe.

Safe School Initiative (SSI)

researchers concluded that those involved in school shootings did not "just snap"; they planned their attacks ahead of time In many cases, long-standing bullying or harassment played a key role in the decision to attack.

workplace violence

sales and related occupations (especially fast-food restaurants and beverage stores), protective service occupations (especially law enforcement officers), and transportation occupations (especially ground-passenger transportation services)

Criminal homicide

the causing of the death of another person without legal justification or excuse. Major levels of homicide: murder and manslaughter

serial murder

the killing of several victims separately, over time, with cooling off period

Serial killer typologies

types: (1) visionary - psychotic, delusions, hallucinations (2) mission oriented - believes that there is a particular group of people who are considered undesirable and who must be destroyed or eliminated- lgbt, racists, religious (3) hedonistic - enjoyment and pleasure; thrill killer is primarily motivated to induce pain or a terrified reaction from the victim; the comfort killer, the act of murder is incidental to the pursuit of material gain and a comfortable lifestyle. (4) power/ control - obtains satisfaction from the absolute life-or-death control he has over the victim.

Multiple murder

usually divided into three somewhat overlapping major-offender patterns based on the timing of the act: Serial Spree Mass

Manslaughter

usually refers to an unintended killing that results from unjustifiable conduct that places others at risk

criminal violence

violence without justification