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Abstract
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Youths committing homicides or other acts of violence appear to be increasing in number at an alarming rate, causing mounting concern to society and pressure upon those charged with their rehabilitation. Nine such youths were studied to define similar parameters in each around which a viable theory of causality could be delineated, and an approach to treatment designed.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study by King was to describe the role of the ego in determining violent behavior among homicidal youth. A social ecology framework was employed to help interpret homicidal behavior.
METHODOLOGY:
The author employed a non-experimental case study design with a non-probability sample of nine youths selected from an unreported source (eight boys and one girl were selected if they had committed a homicide). The author assumed that the act of homicide fulfilled the same purpose for each youth regardless of background and demographic differences. Three of the subjects, including the girl, were black, two were Puerto Rican and four were white. The average age of the subjects when they committed the homicide was fourteen. All but one admitted having committed the act. Diagnostic and treatment-progress reports for each of the subjects were reviewed by the author in conjunction with conducting face-to-face interviews with each of the youth.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
All the youth came from families where both father and mother figures were present for significant periods of each youth's life. However, the family situations were typically filled with turmoil insofar as fighting between parents and beatings of the children were common. The youth in the study was usually singled out for abuse by the parent(s). All of the youth distrusted the environment they were in and expected to be harmed by people in any social interaction. The author aimed to determine what factors led each of the youths to engage in psychotic behavior when all but one were not diagnosed as psychotic. Overall, from the profiles drawn from this sample, the author found that most of the traditional preconditioners to antisocial violent behaviors were evident. Additionally, the treatment prognoses for all but one of the subjects offered no insight into identifying some of the factors which led them to commit homicide. The author therefore sought to explore other impactful, fundamental conditioners of homicidal behavior. The role of cognitive deficits was viewed as not being fully or systematically explored as a basic causal force. Educational deprivation and its relative impact on feelings were identified by the author as significant factors which appeared to influence each of the youths ability to adjust to volatile situations. One subject claimed his illiteracy to be his greatest problem. The author noted that all the youth rated in the dull-normal to normal range (92-104) on standard IQ tests. Yet the author perceived these scores to be minimal assessments of a young person's potential abilities. The author also examined the influence of relationships, in conjunction with that of education, on the basic adjustments of the youth to their surroundings. The subjects constantly referred to their being in hostile and unpredictable people-environments. Subjects would typically respond to this perception by acting first when faced with hostility in order to control the situation in a manner in which they felt most comfortable. The youth were seen as lacking basic skills in mastering reading, language, social symbols, comprehension, and reason to help them interpret the world around them. Consequently, the author questioned how the coping mechanisms of these youth was constructed based on their lack of communication skills and absolute reliance on feeling. The author perceived both education and feelings as critical components of a coping mechanism for these youth. To understand the coping mechanism of these youth in the context of an education deficit, the author developed a social ecology as a framework for discussion. Under such a holistic framework, subsystems of home, background, personality, IQ, endowment (physical, emotional, and intellectual) were seen as determinants of how the youth would adjust to such socializing systems as school, the streets, their peers, and other life situations. The author found the youths' inability or reluctance to master the prevailing language as the most disabling deficit in their development. This inability to communicate inhibited their ability in many ways to work through potentially explosive social situations. Since they could not understand the outer cues of the language of the prevailing society, the youth coped by responding to inner cues which further isolated their adjustment. The author found the youth to commonly employ confrontational language; action loaded, assaultive, and provocative. The home was seen as legitimizing this adaptive technique rather than challenging it. The school, however, did not adjust to this behavior and was consequently the source of disharmony to the youths' communication patterns. When youths had no satisfying experience either in or out of school using words or language to communicate, the author observed that they relied more heavily on feelings to define most situations. If a youth's feelings were threatened, violence would often result. This inability to cope caused the youth to become alienated, reactive, violent, and homicidal. During the interviews, the author found that when he probed the youth about the actual homicide, they typically became very anxious while denying any concern for the victim. This reaction was viewed by the author as a strategy of self-preservation against the world. The author found the homicidal act to serve the same purpose for all the youth--a way of trying to cope, whose prevention could be in training to master social intercourse.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
The author suggested that treatment of these youths needs to occur in environments where their behavior can be controlled through medical or therapeutic means. Monitoring of the youths' total life adjustments, both in and out of school was recommended. This would be most feasible in institutional and residential settings. Through a combination of psychotherapy and special education potentially explosive high stress situations could be diffused. Strategies might incorporate staff training, individual attention, academic education, perceptual reconditioning, complementary services, and coping skills. Youth need to be taught to interpose thought before action. The author suggested that such an environment would encourage the questioning of the sequential history of an event such that new methods of coping could be learned.
EVALUATION:
The author presents a thoughtful study of social ecological factors which lead young people to commit homicide. However, the small sample size reduces the external validity of the author's findings. Additionally, more information about the actual interviews would have been helpful. Overall the author offers rich descriptions of the lives of some homicidal youths which have important implications for future research. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Juvenile Violence
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Homicide
KW - Homicide Offender
KW - Homicide Causes
KW - Violence Causes
KW - Ego Development
KW - Juvenile Development
KW - Youth Development
KW - Offender Personality
KW - Offender Characteristics
KW - Personality Characteristics
KW - Case Studies
KW - Socioecological Factors
Language: en |