Violent Crime

Clinical and Social Implications

Christopher J. Ferguson

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781412959933, 9781412959926
• eBook ISBN: 9781483374598
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

Offering a unique and interdisciplinary focus on the roots of violence, Violent Crime: Clinical and Social Implications explores cutting-edge research on the etiology, nature, assessment, and treatment of individuals who commit violent crimes. This edited volume covers the foundations of criminal behavior, offers a balanced discussion of both environmental and biological research, and includes articles written by top researchers and scholars in the field. In Part I, Violent Crime examines the origins of violence, including family and other social factors, media violence, genetics, biochemistry, and head injuries. Part II delves into research on specific subgroups of offenders, including sex offenders, domestic violence perpetrators, murderers, and serial murderers. Part III focuses on issues related to victimology, prevention, and the treatment of violent offenders.

Key Features

• Draws from a wide range of disciplines, including criminology, sociology, biology, medical science, genetics, clinical psychology, and psychiatry
• Introduces students to cutting-edge research on genetic, biochemical, and traumatic brain injury-related causes and correlates of violent crime
• Presents a systematic introduction to the current state of the field (and its likely future) through articles from leading researchers in the various subfields of violent crime
• Includes case studies with salient, fascinating examples of actual crimes and criminals to help students understand key points
• Offers an international focus, with authors from Canada, England, Greece, and Spain, as well as from the United States
• Provides end-of-chapter learning aids, including summaries, discussion questions, Internet resources, and suggestions for further reading

A must-read for any student of criminological research, Violent Crime: Clinical and Social Implications can be used as a core or supplementary text in undergraduate and graduate courses on Violent Crime, Interpersonal Violence, and Social Deviance.

PART I

Causes of Crime

CHAPTER 1

Violent Crime Research

An Introduction

Christopher J. Ferguson

On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman stabbed to death his wife and mother, then climbed the University of Texas at Austin clock tower, where he perpetrated one of the most famous mass murders in American history. He first clubbed to death a university receptionist; then he fired on a group of tourists who were climbing up the tower after him, killing two. Over the next several hours, Whitman, an ex-marine and student at the university, fired a high-powered rifle down on the campus below. Ultimately, 16 people died, including one of the officers who responded to the scene and the unborn child of a wounded female victim. Thirty-one people were wounded, several of whom experienced lifelong disabilities as a consequence of their injuries. Whitman was successful in keeping a police airplane at bay using his rifle, and he hid behind the tower ramparts to avoid returned fire from police officers and armed civilians below. Finally, two police officers emerged on the observation deck of the clock tower and shot Whitman point blank, killing him.

The tale of Charles Whitman, in and of itself, is an interesting, if tragic story about a school shooting from 40 years ago. However, Whitman’s story ends with an important twist. Upon autopsy, it was found that Charles Whitman had a tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain. Could this tumor have contributed to Whitman’s mental state, leading him to become more aggressive and irrational than he otherwise would have been, or is the presence of this tumor simply a coincidence? Most violent criminals don’t have brain tumors, after all.

Questions about the causes of violence have been with us for centuries. Many famous cases offer tantalizing clues to the origins of violent crime, but are these clues reliable or merely false paths? Consider the following cases:

• Before being executed in Florida, Ted Bundy, who had raped and murdered approximately 30 young women in the United States, claimed that exposure to pornography had helped mold him into a serial killer.
• In 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in Texas. Although initially convicted of murder, Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a second trial, due to a documented history of psychotic illness.
• In 2004, 14-year-old Cody Posey shot to death his father and stepmother. Posey had allegedly experienced years of physical and sexual abuse, yet he also was a player of the violent video game Grand Theft Auto. The makers of Grand Theft Auto were sued for “wrongful death” for allegedly contributing to Posey’s development as a murderer, but the suit was ultimately dismissed.
• In June, 2007, professional wrestler Chris Benoit strangled to death his wife and son, then hanged himself. Allegations that Benoit had used illegal steroids surfaced, leading to speculation that “’roid rage” may have been responsible for the homicides, although these speculations were not confirmed. During subsequent examination, it was alleged by neurosurgeons at West Virginia University that Benoit’s brain was severely damaged, possibly from multiple concussive injuries sustained as a wrestler.

These cases and many famous cases like them appear to offer hints at the origins of violence, whether brain injuries, tumors, family violence exposure, or exposure to the media. However, for each case in which one potential cause appears relevant, another case appears to disconfirm that case. For instance, Aileen Wuornos, a female serial killer who shot men, had a long history of exposure to violence and abuse prior to committing her crimes. By contrast, Karla Homolka, who along with her husband raped and murdered four young girls including her own sister, appeared to come from a privileged background. The purpose of this book is to examine the phenomenon of violent crime in order to separate the “wheat from the chaff.” In other words, what does the evidence really say about the origins of violent crime?

CASE STUDY: TED BUNDY

Handsome, charming, and intelligent, Ted Bundy (birth name: Theodore Robert Cowell) garnered notoriety in the United States as one of the most vicious serial murderers of the late 20th century. The reason for Bundy’s string of vicious rapes and murders, during which he killed 30 or more young women, remains a constant source of speculation.

Bundy’s upbringing is most notable for the circumstances of his parentage. His mother was young and unmarried when she gave birth in 1946. In order to avoid the stigma of having an unwed mother, Bundy was raised by his maternal grandparents as if he were their own son, and his biological mother pretended to be his sister. Bundy did not find out about this state of affairs until his late teens. Although no evidence of abuse in the family is reported, Bundy later claimed that his grandfather was bullying and could fly into violent rages. Bundy appears to have been shy and introverted as a teen, got in minor trouble with the law (the records were expunged), and later reported being fascinated with sex and death even during his teenage years.

Bundy was initially something of an underachiever during his early college years. This was noticed by his girlfriend Stephanie Brooks (a pseudonym used to protect her real identity), who broke off their relationship due to his lack of drive and ambition. After the loss of this relationship, he turned things around, becoming socially and politically active and gaining admittance to law school. He began dating Brooks again and proposed to her late in 1973. After she accepted his proposal, he dumped her without explanation. Soon after, his killing spree began.

Beginning in Washington State, Bundy began attacking young women, often bludgeoning or strangling them to death, engaging in rape or necrophilia, and dumping their bodies in the woods. Many victims showed signs of brutal beatings to the head. Most of the women who went missing were young, slender, and attractive. Reportedly, Bundy used clever tactics to gain the sympathy of some of his victims, such as appearing to struggle with heavy books or a broken-down car while wearing a cast on one arm (a tactic borrowed by the film Silence of the Lambs). He then moved on to kill in Utah and Colorado.

The police investigating the string of murders got their first break in Utah, where Bundy attempted to kidnap Carol DaRonch. Masquerading as a security guard, he informed DaRonch that her car had been broken into and asked her to accompany him to inspect her car and fill out a report. He showed her a badge and offered to drive her to police headquarters. DaRonch became fearful once the man drove her away from police headquarters and stopped the car. Although he pulled a gun on her, DaRonch managed to escape and flag down a passing motorist, while still wearing handcuffs that he had forced on her. Although Bundy escaped and continued killing women, DaRonch became an important witness later.

In 1975, Bundy was pulled over for a traffic violation. Inspecting his car, police found that the passenger seat was missing and in the car were a crowbar, handcuffs, a ski mask, and other suspicious paraphernalia. He was quickly arrested and identified by DaRonch as the man who had briefly kidnapped her. Police were able to find other evidence linking him to many of the murders and disappearances. Hairs matching several victims were found in his VW Bug. Impressions in the skull of one victim matched the crowbar found in his car.

In 1976, Bundy was put on trial for kidnapping DaRonch and convicted. Facing a murder trial, Bundy decided to represent himself and was granted unsupervised time at a courthouse library to plan his own defense. On one such outing, he jumped out of a library window and escaped but was soon apprehended. Seven months later he escaped again, crawling up through the ceiling of the jail and leaving through a janitor’s apartment. This escape was more successful than the first.

On the run, Bundy managed to make his way down to Tallahassee, Florida. In January of 1978, he entered the Chi Omega sorority house on Florida State University campus. Most of the women were out for the night, although a few were home. Bundy killed two, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, while they slept, beating them over the head with a log and strangling them. Levy was also raped and bitten so badly that one nipple was nearly severed from her breast. A third woman was injured but survived, and a fourth saw Bundy as he left the house, a ski mask covering his face.

Bundy’s last victim was 13-year-old Kimberly Leach, who was much younger than most of his victims. Her decomposed body was found eight weeks after she went missing. Bundy was arrested soon after, driving a stolen VW Bug. Leach’s blood was found in a van Bundy had previously used, and Bundy’s biological material was found in her underwear. A shoe print matching Bundy was also found near the body’s dump site. Bite marks on Lisa Levy’s body were found to match Bundy’s teeth. He was put on trial for murder, convicted, and sentenced to death in Florida. During the sentencing phase of the Kimberly Leach trial, Bundy married a female admirer.

Bundy attempted to appeal his convictions but was unsuccessful. He later admitted to the killings and stated that, in fact, there were more dead women that had yet to be identified. He offered to help authorities find the bodies in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. The authorities were not interested.

Just prior to his execution, Bundy gave an interview that received considerable attention. Bundy claimed that exposure to pornography (he claimed that his grandfather kept a considerable collection of pornography), particularly violent pornography, had helped mold his personality. Naturally, these claims were highlighted by antipornography activists. Particularly in the 1980s, there were many concerns that consumption of pornography might be associated with sex crimes or other violence toward women. Ultimately, however, research evidence failed to find any relationship between pornography and sex crimes (Diamond & Uchiyama, 1999). Bundy was executed January 24, 1989.

Where Is the Research on Violent Crime Going?

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At the turn of the 20th century, the predominating classical school of criminology (which posits that criminal actions are freely chosen) was challenged by Cesare Lombroso, who argued that it was biology and evolution that determined criminal behavior. Lombroso argued that criminals were regressed evolutionary throwbacks to less-civilized hominid ancestors. Such throwbacks could potentially be identified by their primitive ape-like features. Lombroso’s work came to be involved with the pseudoscientific enterprise of forensic craniometry (predicting criminality based on the shape and size of the skull) and eugenics and was subsequently discredited. Yet, was Lombroso’s basic belief that evolution plays a role in violent behavior wrong? If not, and if violence is caused by forces beyond an individual’s control, what does this mean for the classical assumption of free will, upon which most Western criminal justice systems are based? Should all violent criminals be considered diseased in some way and thus not held responsible for their actions?

In the biological sciences, evolutionary theory has enjoyed a relatively unbroken dominance in thought, beginning in the 19th century with Charles Darwin. However, in the social sciences, this was not the case. By the mid-20th century, the focus in the social sciences had shifted away from biological and evolutionary theories of human behavior, including violent behavior, to socialization and learning explanations of behavior. For instance, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) pamphlet on youth violence states, “There is no gene for violence. Violence is a learned behavior” (APA, 1996). During the mid-20th century, some important risk factors for violence were identified, including poverty, family violence, and community cohesion. During much of the later half of the 20th century, theories suggesting that biology or evolution may contribute to violent crime remained controversial and were actively resisted (Wasserman & Wachbroit, 2001).

By the beginning of the 21st century, increased awareness of powerful genetic, biological, and evolutionary factors influencing violent crime came to light. As can be seen in Table 1.1, the single most powerful predictor of violent and antisocial behavior is genetics. There are other factors, both social and biological, that are also important to consider, but none can singularly account for as much variance as genetics can. Also, several genes have been specifically linked to violent behavior (see Chapters 4 and 5). Thus, we can say that claims such as those made by the APA (1996) are simply out of date. The complex interactions between genetic and nongenetic factors remain a subject of intense study, and future research is likely to focus on complex interactions between multiple causal factors including genetics, family environment, poverty and unemployment, and policing strategies and neighborhoods. More and more, researchers understand that violence is complex, multifaceted, and best understood from a multivariate perspective.

Where does all this leave the classical theory, with its emphasis on free will? Not surprisingly, as both biological and social factors that influence violent behavior have come to light, perpetrators have argued that they are not guilty by reason of mental defect due to biological or social influences outside their control. The case of Dan White presents one infamous example. White assassinated the mayor of San Francisco and the city supervisor in November, 1978. During his trial, his defense team argued that White’s consumption of Twinkies and Coca-Cola and generally poor diet made his existing mood swings more difficult to control. Believing he was thus incapable of premeditating the violent crime, the jury found White guilty of manslaughter rather than murder. White served five years in prison for the two homicides and ultimately committed suicide at home in 1985.

Table 1.1 Effect Sizes in Medical and Criminal Justice Research

Relationship	Effect Size (r)
Smoking on Lung Cancer	.90
Genetic Influences on Antisocial Behavior	.75
Salk Vaccine on Polio Prevention	.74
Self-Control and Perceptions of Criminal Opportunity on Crime	.58
Protective Effect of Community Institutions on Neighborhood Crime	.39
Violent Video Game Playing on Visuospatial Cognitive Ability	.36
Firearms Ownership on Crime	.35
Incarceration Use as a Deterrent on Crime	.33
Aggressive Personality and Violent Crime	.25
Poverty on Crime	.25
Childhood Physical Abuse and Adult Violent Crime	.22
Child Witnessing Domestic Violence on Future Aggression	.18
Television Violence on Violent Crime	.10
Violent Video Game Playing on Aggressive Behavior	.04
Parental Spanking on Child Aggression	.03

SOURCE: Data are from Baumrind, Larzelere, and Cowan (2002); Block and Crain (2007); Ferguson (2007); Ferguson (in press); Ferguson, Rueda, Cruz, Ferguson, Fritz, and Smith (2008); Francis et al. (1955); Kiz...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Brief Contents
• Contents
• Preface
• PART I. CAUSES OF CRIME
• PART II. THE OFFENDERS
• PART III. VICTIMS, PREVENTION, AND TREATMENT
• Index
• About the Editor
• About the Contributors