Module 7: Violent Death
Homicides
• Homicide = killing another human being
• Justifiable homicide = using lethal force to protect
your own life
• Negligent homicide = your carelessness results in
the death of another person
• Manslaughter = contributing to a death without
intending to have done so
• Murder = intentional and unlawful act of killing
another person
Murder
• U.S. has the highest murder rate in the Western world
(5.6 per 100,000 in 2002; down from the all time high in
1980 of 10.2 per 100,000)
• Gang murder is rising
• Arguments are the most common situation leading to a
death
• Guns are used in 2/3’s of killings; knives second most
common
• Homicides are more common in southern states,
metropolitan areas, and impoverished areas
Murder
• Males are most often the killer and the victim
• Most at risk of becoming a victim between the ages of 25
and 44.
• In most cases the murderer and the victim are of the
same race.
• Most murderers are relatives, lovers, friends, neighbors,
or colleagues of the victims.
• Murder is the leading cause of death for women in the
workplace.
Domestic Violence
• Men who kill their partners
• Have an obsession with control and dominance
• Generally were abused in their youth; as adults need
to feel dominant
• Women who kill their partners
• Approximately 1.5 million physical assaults upon
women by their male partners
• Often in response to repeated humiliation, abuse, and
injury to themselves or their children from their
partner
Domestic Violence
• People who kill children
• Dysfunctional families, lack of parenting skills,
Replacement Father Syndrome
• Mental disorders
• Circumstances such as unemployment, drug abuse,
abandonment of mother and children by fathers
• People who kill their parents
• 300 parents are killed per year in the U.S. (parricide)
• Most victims and killers and White and non-Hispanic
• Most killers are male and have been severely abuse
by those parents
• Most parents in late 40s or 50s
Youth and Guns
• Drive-by Shootings
• Little or no sense of identification with humanity
• Peer acceptance is the dominant motivation
• Guns and automobiles are remote and removed
• School Shootings
• Killing has gained acceptance as a way of solving
problems
• No other way to deal with rejection, frustration and
loss
• Us and Them (or Me and All of You)
Mass Killers
• Mass killing – several people die in a single episode
• Typically a lone, white male in his 20s or 30s, with
firearms, who knows few if any of his victims
• Often have a suicidal streak, even motivated to die at
the scene of their crimes
• Most are not psychotic, but do have antisocial
personalities
• Angry, feels mistreated, oppressed
• Rarely a hardened criminal
Mass and Serial Killers
• Mass killing continued:
• Seldom draws attention to himself until caught
• Often found in booming cities
• Few mass murders in the South
• Serial killing – homicide of three or more people over a
period of time
• Difficult to establish the number operating in the U.S.;
estimates range from 20 to 300
• Generally not suicidal like a mass killer
Political Murder: Assassination
• Clark (1982): Four Types of Assassins
• Type I: Political Extremists
• Believe their actions are good for society
• Type II: Rejected and Misguided People
• Anxious people who feel unable to cope
• Type III: Antisocial Personalities
• Show no remorse
• Type IV: Psychotics
• Out of contact with reality
20th Century Terrorism
and Genocide
• Often against people of the same land and experiences
but who are perceived as being different in a significant
way
• Often preceded by denying that other is a human being
• Fear kills – Those in power have feared overthrow
• Cold-blooded “rationalism” kills – planned political
operations
• Religious intolerance instigates and justifies terrorism
• Terrorism fails – seldom has a terrorist movement
achieved its objectives
Defining the term “terrorism”
• There is no universally agreed upon definition of terrorism
• Use or threat of violence aimed at creating fear not only amongst the
victims but also a wider group of people
• The UN’s sort of definition:
o Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action,
employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for
idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby — in contrast to
assassination — the direct targets of violence are not the main targets.
The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen
randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or
symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message
generators. Threat- and violence-based communication processes
between terrorist (organization), (imperilled) victims, and main targets
are used to manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a
target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending
on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought
(Schmid, 1988).
Are their common traits shared by
terrorists?
• Have not really been successful in creating a
terrorist “profile”
• Most terrorists have a very black & white view of
the world –typically very little ability to think for
themselves
• Low self-esteem, attracted to charismatic
leaders, risk-takers
• Highly logical – moving towards their goals
• Sense of dedication to a religious vision
• A terrorist typically isn’t a terrorist until they have
committed a horrific act
Motivation
• Usually motivated to send some message,
make a point through violence (violence as a
mode of expression, communication,
assertion of power)
• In some cases, religion is used as a
motivating factor, or religion is a common
factor in bringing together those interested in
terrorism
21st Century Terrorism
World Trade Center Attacks
• Profound impact on American attitudes
• Casualties were mostly civilians
• Destruction occurred on the American mainland
• The skyline of a great city was altered
• Victims could communicate with cell phones
• All Americans could watch it on t.v.
• Changes in government, such as the Department
of Homeland Security, and military action
Genocide
The deliberate and systematic destruction of an
ethnic or racial group or nation
Examples: The Jews during Nazi Germany
Darfur
Rwanda
Kosovo population in Bosnia
Dehumanization: Key Factor in Genocide
• As a rule, human
beings do not kill
other human beings.
Before we enter into
warfare or genocide,
we first dehumanize
those we mean to
“eliminate” ~Sam
Keen
• Dehumanization is
mostly likely when the
target group can be
readily identified as a
separate category of
people belonging to a
distinct racial, ethnic,
religious, or political
group that the
perpetrators regard as
inferior or threatening”
~James Waller,
Becoming Evil
What is Dehumanization?
• Dehumanization typically refers to a process by
which an individual or a group of people assert
the inferiority of another individual or group
through words, images, or actions.
• stripping away of human qualities
• occurs in conflict situations in order to cause
individuals or groups categorized as the enemy
to not be perceived as similar to ourselves.
• When an individual is no longer seen as having
human, personal qualities it becomes much
easier for human beings to commit violent acts
or acts of aggression towards others.
Dehumanizing Images, Language, &
Symbols in War Time
• Hutus used a word meaning cockroach to
describe the Tutsis
• Nazis referred to Jews as filth, cancer, vermin
• Islam and communism have both been
described as cancerous growths
• Enemies are typically referred to as barbaric,
uncivilized, fanatics
Most Common Causes of
Accidental Deaths
• Motor Vehicles (as an occupant)
• Pedestrian
• Falls
• Poisoning
• Drowning
• Motorcycle Riding
• Fires, Smoke, and Burns
• Off-Road Motor Vehicles
• Firearms (accidental)
Natural Disasters
• Most common: earthquakes, storms, floods,
fires
• Earthquakes are the most devastating
episodic disasters
Impact
• Natural Disasters tend to cause mass death
and destroy infrastructure that impacts the
death system
• Long-term impact on an entire region
• Most victims of natural disasters receive little
social or psychological support – focus is on
economic support
Conclusion
• Mass death, whether human-made or natural,
tends to have long-term impacts on
individuals and communities.
• Some mass death can be prevented – better
construction against earthquakes, tsunami
warning systems, proper hurricane
evacuation, better gun control, mental heath,
intervention services for victims of domestic
violence.