Superbowl Sunday coming up — so I’m focusing on domestic violence. (There is no rigorous study that domestic violence increases after the Superbowl).
“ Suspected, convicted and charged”, graphic from Boston Globe, 07.22.07 ( Keith O’brian, “Why do men kill their wives?”visited 01.28.08)
Domestic violence has always been implicitly given a “diminished capacity” sort of view due to some unexpressed or perhaps implicit view of male biology — that men are inherently violent, and with provocation, of course they are likely to be violent against a no-good, cheating, money grubbing, gold-digging good fer nuthin dirty woman . Men’s neural wiring combined with hormones makes it so that they just can’t control themselves, and if women can’t understand that, then they themselves are to blame.
Now, some of my best friends are men.
So I don’t believe that “testosterone-uncontrollable urge” theory for one minute.
This article caught my eye: Asia Sentinel – India’s Pink Posse: In countries with no legitimate judicial system, people take justice to the streets. In the poorest regions in India, the “Pink Posse” is a grass roots vigilante movement by women to get street justice for domestic violence and corrupt officials. (HT WSJ Informed Reader blog)
I was just watching a tv show about spouses who hire hit men to kill their ex’s — why? What is the point? Even on a pragmatic level, what is the point of putting yourself at risk for a jail sentence where your ex spouse wants nothing to do with you? (Which seemed to the the case in most of the situations — for both men and women).
I’d like to know more about how batterers think — what is it that allows an otherwise “normal” person to attack their significant other? Or are these people not “normal”?
I understand the opportunistic element. That is pure frontal lobe cognition, weighing the risks and benefits: let’s see, should I bully the meanest, nastiest dude in the bar or my wife who is a foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter? And for domestic violence, there simply a widespread implicit “hall pass”. Domestic violence is treated as less than assault and battery– when, imo, it is worse, considering the nature of a family relationship and the harm to society.
What is it that lets the frontal lobe areas for “compassion” get unplugged? Is it the biological need for a dopamine rush? Is the need for a power trip reinforced by dopamine? Should there be some other dopamine-rush substitute put into batterer treatment programs?
In the western world, men murder their spouses for different reasons than women (largely). Women murder after some period of intolerable abuse (don’t all the men’s rights people jump on me, this is a generalization). Men, on the other hand, murder for “provocation” or perhaps as a divorce substitute.
Now, for those who use murder as an instrumentality to get what they want, like avoiding the hassle of a divorce, that to me is clear psychopathic conduct. (In my lay person understanding).
What I don’t understand about that is why they would have married to begin with? As a cover to make them look “normal”? To impress their friends with a trophy? In what way is “marriage” an instrumentality toward another psychopathic goal?
Any psychopaths out there who want to let me in on this?
Here is an interesting article following up to the Sunny Von Bulow trial.
Hey,
Tried to post this morning (a nice, long scientific post, really boring) and got a “Server Busy,” along with a loss of my comment. Fun!
Anyhoo, an interesting way to look at DV offenders is their three general catergories:
1) ASPD Guys – they engage in DV, but they will also hit others, and engage in other crime as well. Basically, DV is just a part of their overall criminality, as well as a “parasitic” approach to relationships with others.
2) Male Borderlines – this is the insecure, controlling group. They check messages, monitor her location, isolate their partner from others, etc. They have a mentality of “a bad relationship is better than no relationship,” because A) they have their own sense of emptiness and inadequacy, which they B) “medicate” through their relationship (thus they can’t afford to let her “get away,” because the rejection is not just about the failed relationship, it labels them as a failure). Very needy, love/hate, intense, and this is the group, at the extreme end, that will do the whole murder/suicide thing (including the kids).
3) Overcontrolled hostility – these guys are the passive or passive-aggressive types, who avoid regualr conflict, hold in their frustrations, and allow it to build up until they blow up. The classic “cycle of violence” applies to them, as the violence episode is temporarily cathartic, they go through a “honeymoon stage,” promise to never do it again, etc., but the pattern repeats as the daily frustrations build again.
Different treatment strategies are needed for different types of DV offenders. The last group is generally the most amenable to treatment, given that their main problem is lack of skills around relationships, assertiveness, anger management, etc. The other two groups require much more, and respond less well.
A really good resource for DV stuff is Don Dutton. He’s been involved in the field for decades, and does a lot of research based work.
Good post!!!
Hi JD, Sorry about the server — ? I was hoping you’d have some expertise on this.
In your dealing with psychopaths – do they have any affiliative behavior? I mean, do they have the brain machinery for any kind of human bonding/loyalty/trust?
I’m thinking that they either have a white matter disconnect or else they lack vasopressin receptors.
Although the traumatic brain injury study in the WSJ was really interesting — that could account for some of this behavior.
Swivel,
I’m just starting to get back into the habit of looking at etiology research, primarily due to personal interest, since much of the technical science is either bbeyond my knowledge level and/or beyond what is necessary for me to do my job (you test ‘em, I’ll assess and treat ‘em!).
That being said, psychopaths would make up a subgroup of the first group I identied above. I don’t have any data regarding the subgroup of psychopaths within ASPD DV offenders, but I can break it down for you in terms of overall incarcerated offenders. ASPD is an almost useless diagnosis in prison, as roughly 75% of incarcerated offenders meet the criteria. Therefore, it doesn’t really tell us anything. However, of that 75%, 25% meet the criteria of at least “Moderately” psychopathis (that is, at least a 20-23 on the PCL-R). I would imagine the percentage is lower for DV offenders, but not by too much (just my own opinion, again, no data).
Regarding affliation, from a clinical rather than neuropsychological perspective, I would say that it falls on the continuum in reverse proportion. That is, the more psychopathis an individual is, the less affiliative they will be. This would be because on the “aggressive narcissism” factor, their score would almost have to rise to get to a score of 30+, to a point where their ability to consider anyone but themselves (except superficially) would be severely strained.
On the other hand, this doesn’t mean they won’t have “relationships of convenience.” That is, they may become extremely loyal to a group that provides them with an outlet to act psychopathically. Some of Bin Laden’s high command, for example, love the idea of being in Al Qaeda, since they get to go places, kill, maim, rape, etc. And guys like Bin Laden love these guys, as he can turn them loose. However, they are not the same as the “blind devotees,” as they’ll be the ones who turn States’ Evidence if caught, in order to avoid the death penalty, etc. Ultimately, their loyalty will be to themselves. You’ll see this in other criminal organizations as well (i.e. mafia hit men who squeal like pigs once caught). Again, the best word I’ve heard to describe most of these guys, in terms of their relationships with others, is “parasitic.” They’ll stick around, as long as it suits thier needs. As soon as something better comes along, it’s “good bye.”
Speaking about the biology, though, is why I come to your site!
That’s the problem, the biology papers are so dense no one can read them — and then when I go to the neuroscience blogs, they’re complaining that neuroscience is getting too popularized. So, there you go.
As far as psychopaths — it is just puzzling to me why a cool, calculating parasite (like the guys in the Boston Globe article) would get married to begin with — it doesn’t seem like they have any affiliative brain cells. Why not just hang out and be a man-about-town?
Actually, I was thinking it was sort of a age-neurodegenerative thing, sort of like Huntington’s disease — where extra DNA mutations sort of add up invisibly until there is a phenotype. Pre-Huntington’s people have psychiatric disorders, including aggressive hostility. So they get married, feeling affiliative, but then things sort of go south from there. Maybe it’s not Huntington’s disease, but some other similar DNA triuncleotide repeat disorder messing up brain cell DNAs with age. Alcohol or drugs probably exacerbates the whole thing.
Swivel,
Certainly th drugs and alcohol are part of it, at least for the first two subgroups (interestingly, they use for different reasons, the ASPD guys due to their low tolerance for boredom, the borderline guys to “medicate” their sense of inadequacy and emptiness).
I’d dispute the notion of psychopaths as “cool and calculating,” however. While some are that way, there is no association of increased IQ with psychopathy. Therefore, at least half are below average intellectually. Throw in the substance abuse, impulsivity, and likely head inujuries as a result of lifestyle (you would believe the self-reports I get from defendants regarding bottles broken over the head, kicked to the ground, fistfights where they were knocked out), and I’d say that unless you had a higher functioning psychopath that was able to avoid much of that lifestyle (higher IQ, white collar psychopath)they are worse than average in terms of goals, planning, etc. They are cool under pressure (unless they perceive a social threat – i.e. “disrespect,” in which case they fly off the handle) but they are generally lazy (I’ll be doing a post about cognitive indolence (i.e. intellectual laziness) in my offender therapy series.
Oh, and you’re right about the marriage thing, except that psychopaths never have any intention of actually honoring, you know, the contract. Vows are just words, easily broken and rationalized. Unfortunately for the spouse, they don’t fully grasp this until after they are already stuck.
[...] Jasno wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSuperbowl Sunday coming up — so I’m focusing on domestic violence. (There is no rigorous study that domestic violence increases after the Superbowl). “ Suspected, convicted and charged”, graphic from Boston Globe, 07.22.07 ( Keith … Read the rest of this great post here [...]
I write this on the day of the media circus in Australia covering convicted American wife killer Gabe Watson’s release from prison for the “manslaughter” of his wife. He was given an 18 month sentence which was ludicrous considering all the damning evidence, but that’s justice Australian style – where the crims appear to have more rights than the victims of crime.
It was reported on Wikipedia that Gabe has remarried – a look alike of his dead wife. This is behavior consistent with other “Eraser Killers” as identified in Marilee Strong’s book Erased: Missing Women, Murdered Wives.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0787996394?tag=marileestrong-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0787996394&a
I’m quite sure that Gabe Watson is another “Eraser Killer” who simply disposed of his wife on their honeymoon because she was of more use to him dead than alive. He was the sole beneficiary of a large life insurance policy – undertaken at HIS request.
I hope that Gabe Watson receives the prison sentence in American that he deserves and justice will finally be given to Tina Watson’s shattered parents.
Cg- If anything, being an intimate/spouse should be aggravating, rather than mitigating.