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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study by Malmquist was to reveal premonitory indicators in adolescents who commit homicide.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors used a quasi-experimental design utilizing psychiatric interviews of a sample of 20 adolescents charged with murder, their relatives, and witnesses. Interviews were done to determine the presence of warning signs during the hours or days before the episode of violence. Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventories, IQ tests, and Rorshachs were administered to all subjects. The sample was drawn from juveniles seen by the author, a psychiatric consultant to the district court. These juveniles had no prior offenses against a person on their records. The sample was comprised of 17 adolescent boys and 3 girls.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The diagnoses of the subjects were: schizophrenia, (3); depressive disorders, (10); and personality disorders, (7). Juveniles could approximate within 48 hours the time when his/her behavior had changed. Deep pessimism about self or predicament was often present. Self-criticism rose and sometimes was verbalized to peers. Another sign was a call for help. This call for help was usually ignored by friends and family members who were in denial. Barbiturates and tranquilizers were used in an attempt to control impulses. Some of the adolescents increased dosages before the incidents. Amphetamines were also used. Some of the adolescents had suffered the loss of a lover or a mother prior to th homicidal act. The adolescents had no way of coping with such a painful loss. Threats to the adolescent's manhood seemed to incite some of the adolescents to homicide. One instance of this was a 15 year old boy whose friend during a robbery yelled, "Shoot! Kill him! Don't be yellow, you weakling!" Somatic illnes was a sign that occurred in ten cases. This included headaches of increasing intensity, persistent physical aches, and delusions that an organ was diseased. Increased agitation and energy along with motor restlessness and disrupted sleeping and eating patterns signaled and an emotional build-up. For some of the adolescents this included talking to themselves in an unintelligible manner, acute anxiety, and catatonic excitement. There were breakdowns of ego control exhibited by crying and sobbing spells. Homosexual threats were perceived as a precipitating factor for homicide in some of the cases. The author felt that the combination and weight of the variables that push an adolescent passed his or he breaking point may never fully be understood, but he argued that homicide might be a desperate attempt to survive by displacing onto someone else an adolescent' aggression pitted at himself.
(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 - Homicide Predictors
KW - Juvenile Homicide
KW - Juvenile Violence
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Female
KW - Juvenile Male
KW - Male Offender
KW - Male Violence
KW - Female Offender
KW - Female Violence
KW - Early Adolescence
KW - Late Adolescence
KW - Homicide Causes
KW - Violence Causes |