The Psychology of Extreme Violence

A Case Study Approach to Serial Homicide, Mass Shooting, School Shooting and Lone-actor Terrorism

Clare Allely

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000061932
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychologie
• Subtopic: Histoire et théorie en psychologie

Featuring a unique overview of the different forms of extreme violence, this book considers the psychology of extreme violence alongside a variety of contributing factors, such as brain abnormalities in homicide offenders. Featuring several contemporary real-world case studies, this book offers insight into the psychology of serial homicide offenders, mass shooters, school shooters and lone-actor terrorists.

The main purpose of this book is not to glorify or condemn the actions of these individuals, but to attempt to explain the motivations and circumstances that inspire such acts of extreme violence. By adopting a detailed case study approach, it aims to increase our understanding of the specific motivations and psychological factors underlying extreme violence.

Using nontechnical language, this book is the ideal companion for students, researchers, and forensic practitioners interested in the multidisciplinary nature of extreme violence. This book will also be of interest to students taking courses on homicide, mass shooting, school shooting, terrorism, forensic psychology and criminology and criminal justice.

1

INTRODUCTION

 

In the United States, between 1978 and 1991, a man murdered 17 men and boys, with the majority of these murders taking place between 1987 and 1991. His murders involved rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism. He also made crude attempts to lobotomize some of his victims. In the United Kingdom, a man killed his 15 male victims over a five-year period between 1978 and 1983. A man murdered 10 people (mostly women) in Wichita, Kansas in the United States between 1974 and 1991. On June 17, 2015, a 21-year-old man shot nine people at an Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. On May 23, 2014, a 22-year-old man embarked on a “premeditated, murderous rampage” in Isla Vista Santa Barbara, California killing six people, and himself and injuring 14 others. On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old man shot his mother multiple times in the head before going out and killing 26 people, 20 of them young children, inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. A man known as the “Unabomber” sent through the mail or hand delivered 16 package bombs to mainly scientists and academicians over the course of 17 years, which resulted in the death of three and the injury of 23 people. On July 22, 2011, a Norwegian man killed 77 people during two well-planned attacks. The first involved the bombing of government buildings in Oslo and the second the shooting spree on the island of Utøya.

In the aftermath or detection of such terrible tragedies and extreme acts of violence, the same questions are always asked. What motivated the individual to perpetrate such acts of extreme violence? Was he mentally ill? Was he insane? Did he have any brain abnormalities? Did he come from an abusive background? Were there any red flags or warning signs of what was to come? Could it have been prevented? What can we do to avoid more of these tragedies in the future? This book will address these questions through the use of case studies for a range of extreme acts of violence, including: mass shooting, school shooting, serial homicide and lone-actor terrorism. Note the use of the ‘he’ in the questions above. This is because the majority of such extreme acts of violence are carried out by males. In Chapter 2, the anatomy of extreme violence is explored, including brain abnormalities, genetics and heart rate. Chapter 3 explores the psychology of serial homicide and provides a theoretical background to serial homicide, including exploring some of the factors that may contribute to this type of offending behavior. It also covers some of the key typologies of serial homicide offenders, including the disorganized and organized typology. In this chapter, a new nosology for serial homicide is discussed: the Compulsive Criminal Homicide (CCH), which attempts to bridge legal, academic and clinical perspectives on serial homicide. Two case studies of serial homicide offenders are explored in detail, Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Rader (both based in the United States). A brief case study of Dennis Nilsen is also covered in this chapter. Nilsen has been described as the British equivalent of Jeffrey Dahmer and it is useful to highlight the parallels between these two serial homicide offenders in terms of their premortem and postmortem interactions with their victims as well as the psychological motivations underlying their extreme acts of violence. In Chapter 4, the psychology of mass shooters is explored and the case studies of Elliot Rodger and Dylann Roof are examined in detail. Dylann Roof is also sometimes referred to as a lone-actor terrorist but, for the purposes of this chapter, he is referred to as a mass shooter. Then, in Chapter 5, the psychology of school rampage shooters is studied, first with a review of the theoretical literature and then with the examination of a detailed case study of school shooter Adam Lanza. The psychology of terrorism and lone-actor terrorism is then explored in Chapter 6, starting with an overview of the literature relating to psychology and terrorism and, then, in more specific detail with the case studies of Theodore Kaczynski (the “Unabomber”) and Anders Behring Breivik. The final chapter explores the available literature and resources on threat assessment and prevention.

This book is a comprehensive resource for academics and professionals involved in extreme violence, such as psychologists, psychiatrists, investigators, lawyers, profilers, criminal justice professionals, educators, social workers and anyone who wants to understand the contributing factors that can be involved in such extreme acts of violence. This book will also be of interest to students taking courses on homicide, serial homicide, sexual homicide, mass shooting, school shooting, terrorism, lone-actor terrorism, forensic psychology and criminology and criminal justice. The main purpose of this book is not to glorify or in any way condone the actions of those who perpetrate such acts of extreme violence; rather, it aims to positively influence how we think about and respond to the individuals who perpetrate such extreme acts of violence. By adopting a case study approach, we are able to gain a rich and extremely detailed (and sometimes personal) insight into the pathway to violence in each of the offenders explored in this book, with the aim of increasing our understanding of what were the specific motivations and psychological factors underlying their extreme acts of violence. I hope that readers of this book will find it useful, informative, interesting and that it will stimulate debate and new ideas of how we can even more effectively study these individuals to increase our understanding and prevent further devastating tragedies in the future.

2

THE ANATOMY OF EXTREME VIOLENCE

The development of a lone-actor terrorist, mass shooter or serial homicide offender is the result of a combination and interaction of a number of different factors (psychosocial factors, genetic, neurobiological, etc). Psychosocial stressors such as childhood abuse is a factor that has been found to alter the trajectory of brain development (van der Kolk, 2003; Andersen et al., 2008; Blanco et al., 2015; Teicher & Samson, 2016).

The role of neurochemistry in violence

The possibility of a biological or genetic basis for serial homicide or other forms of extreme violence is controversial (DeHart & Mahoney, 1994). However, studies have found associations between neuro-chemical imbalance and aggression. For instance, studies have found that low serotoninergic activity in humans is associated with impulsive, self-destructive violence (e.g., Söderström et al., 2001; Volavka, 2002; Krakowski, 2003; Coccaro et al., 2015; however, see Duke et al., 2013). Others have shown that increased synaptic serotonin levels are related to aggression (e.g., Raine, 1993; Raine, Lencz & Scerbo, 1995; Volavka, 1995, 1999; Bell, Abrams & Nutt, 2001; Baron-Cohen, 2011). Dopamine and norepinephrine have both been found to increase levels of aggression (Raine, 1993) and there have been numerous studies that have found aberrant dopaminergic function in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (Söderström et al., 2001). Testosterone plays a role in aggression but its effects interact with social factors (Miller, 2000).

Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A)

There is an increasing number of studies that have identified an association between genetics and violence. There is an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) that plays a role in the metabolism of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. Levels of MAO-A are genetically determined. In their study, Heide and Solomon (2006) found evidence that showed that men with low MAO-A activity were three times more likely to be convicted of a violent crime by the time they were 26 years of age when compared to men who had high MAO-A activity. In a longitudinal study conducted by Caspi and colleagues, which includes a large sample of male children from birth to adulthood, findings revealed an association between low levels of MAO-A activity and violence was only in those who had also experienced childhood maltreatment (Caspi et al., 2002). Interestingly, findings showed that the maltreated children with high levels of MAO-A expression were less likely to develop antisocial problems when compared to the maltreated children with low levels of MAO-A. Regarding the adult violent convictions, the maltreated males with low levels of MAO-A were found to be more likely to be convicted of a violent crime than the non-maltreated males with low levels of MAO-A. In the males who were found to have high levels of MAO-A activity, maltreatment was not found be a significant risk factor for a violent conviction. A meta-analysis that was published a few years after the publication by Caspi and colleagues (2002), which combined the results from five studies, found that the association between early familial adversity and mental health was significantly stronger in the low level MAO-A group when compared to the high level MAO-A group (Kim-Cohen et al., 2006). This was consistent with the findings from Caspi and colleagues’ (2002) study. Kim-Cohen and colleagues (2006) did not just carry out a meta-analysis in their paper, but also reported the findings from their own study based on a sample of 975 seven-year-old boys. The findings replicated those of Caspi and colleagues (2002).

MAO-A has also been found to be associated with antisocial personality disorder (APD) (Beach et al., 2010). Interestingly, research has found evidence to indicate that there is a direct relationship between the MAO-A gene and features of antisocial personality, irrespective of whether the individual had experienced abuse or not (Williams et al., 2009). In both females and males with low level MAO-A gene, higher levels of lifelong aggression were reported (Eisenberger et al., 2007). In the men who had a rare genetic abnormality of the MAO-A gene, which results in low levels of MAO-A, twice the amount of serious delinquency and adult violence were found when compared to the normal controls (Guo et al., 2008).

Crucially, there does not exist a single gene that is solely responsible for crime or violence. As well as MAO-A, Raine (2013) has highlighted that there are a number of other genes that have also been identified as being contributing factors to antisocial and aggressive behavior. For instance, the 5HTT gene (Cadoret et al., 2003), the DRD2 gene (DeLisi et al., 2009), the DAT1 gene (Lee et al., 2007) and the DRD4 (Gadow et al., 2010).

Hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis

Hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which are involved in the stress response to situations that are threatening, also play a complex and important role in the regulation of aggression (Barzman et al., 2010). Psychological stress at a number of stages in development may result in long-lasting changes to the functioning of the HPA axis, which may predispose individuals to engaging in antisocial behavior (e.g., van Goozen et al., 2007). In studies involving humans, cortisol secretion is usually examined in relation to HPA axis activation. Salivary cortisol concentration is a peripheral measure that is used in many studies in order to investigate individual differences in the HPA axis, which is involved in propensities for aggression, socialization and the ability to adapt to stress (McBurnett et al., 2000). There have been some studies that have found an association between reduced basal cortisol concentrations and aggressive behavior (Van Goozen et al. 2004). However, other studies have not found this association (e.g., Azar et al., 2004). A positive association between aggressive behavior and reduced cortisol concentrations has been found by other studies (e.g., Van Bokhoven et al., 2005). Some longitudinal studies have investigated this association. For instance, one found that low levels of cortisol in childhood were predictive of aggressive behavior five years later when they were adolescents (Shoal, Giancola & Kilrillova, 2003). The salivary cortisol levels and levels of aggression in 38 clinic-referred school-aged boys were investigated in another study, which found that boys who were displaying behavioral problems and also had low levels of cortisol were found to be more aggressive at a follow-up two years later (McBurnett et al., 2000). Lastly, hypoglycaemia is now well-recognized as being associated with impulsive, violent behavior. It is suggested that this association may be potentially mediated through serotonergic mechanisms and also alcohol intake (Volavka, 1995, 1999).

Brain abnormalities and neuroanatomy of mass murderers

Cavum septum pellucidum

There is a neurological condition that is called the cavum septum pellucidum (CSP), which occurs as a result of maldevelopment of the brain. The exact factors that may cause limbic maldevelopment leading to CSP are not known (Raine, 2013). During normal development of the limbic system, two leaflets of gray and white matter fuse together, which creates what is known as the “septum pellucidum.” The “septum pellucidum” is what separates the lateral ventricles, which are the fluid-filled spaces in the middle of the brain (Raine, 2013, see Figure 2.1). During the second trimester of pregnancy, there is a rapid growth of the limbic and midline structures (which include the hippocampus, amygdale, septum and the corpus collosum). Such rapid growth of the limbic and midline structures causes the fusion of the two leaflets of gray and white matter. The fusion is completed some time between three and six months after birth (Sarwar, 1989). When there is a maldevelopment of the limbic structures, the cavum is formed between the two leaflets, which do not become fused (Raine, 2013). This has led many to believe that CSP may be a potentially useful early marker for disrupted limbic region development (Sarwar, 1989), which in turn has been found to be associated with offending behavior (e.g., Pardini et al., 2013).

FIGURE 2.1 The septum pellucidum in a non-antisocial individual compared to the septum pellucidum in an antisocial individual. (a) shows a scan of a normal brain and (b) shows a scan of an individual with a cavum septum pellucidum (CSP).

Permission to use image kindly granted by Professor Adrian Raine.

There have been numerous experimental studies on animals (such as rodents and monkeys) investigating CSP and the findings suggest an association between anomalies or irritation of septum pellucidum and increased levels of aggression (Shaw & Alvord Jr., 1969; Sarwar, 1989; Toivonen et al., 2013). This research was taken forward into human studies by Raine, Lee, Yang and Colletti (2010), who used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to examine CSP in a community sample. Significantly higher scores on measures of both antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy were found in individuals in the group who did have CSP (n = 19) compared to the control group who did not have CSP (n = 68). Additionally, more charges and convictions were also found in the group of individuals with CSP compared to the controls (Raine et al., 2010). There has been relatively little research carried out to date exploring the factors that may be contributing to this maldevelopment of the limbic structures, which causes CSP. However, maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy has been suggested as being one of the factors contributing to limbic maldevelopment (Swayze et al., 1997 as cited in Raine, 2013). It is useful to note that Raine and colleagues had controlled for other factors (such as trauma, head injury and psychiatric confounds), but the findings did not change. Therefore, CSP by itself appears to be what predisposes individuals to antisocial, psychopathic and aggressive behavior (Raine, 2013).

The two images in Figure 2.1 are coronal MRI slices at the level of the head of the anterior limb of the internal capsule, caudate, putamen, accumbens and insula. Highlighted within the central box in both images is the septum pellucidum. Illustration (a) shows a normal, fused septum pellucidum (thin membrane that separates the lateral ventricles) in a non-antisocial control and illustration (b) shows the CSP (a fluid-filled cavum between the two leaflets of the septum pellucidum) in an individual with antisocial personality disorder.

Based on the Raine a...