Criminal Deviance
Learning Topic 5: Individual Aggression Crimes
Topic Overview
This learning topic will cover two distinct areas, each focusing on a different set of individual aggression crimes. The first section examines homicide, assault, and family violence. You will see that this set of individual aggression crimes includes individuals with extensive and well-documented histories of various forms of assault and boundary violations of the rights of others, but also individuals with no known criminal histories. It is not uncommon for an individual with no prior arrest history to be arrested for assaulting, injuring, or even murdering his or her spouse. Though you will see that the majority of such offenses involve males as the perpetrators, the gender gap is narrowing, and females are increasingly being arrested for serious injury or murder of a spouse.
It is important for you to become familiar with the various social and legal definitions involved in homicide, assault, and family violence crimes, as you will see that these definitions can vary, sometimes greatly, depending on the particular state jurisdiction. These crimes of individual aggression carry with them varying elements that must be met for arrest and subsequent conviction in court. As you examine the criteria that must be met for each of these respective crimes, you will discover that these related crimes can overlap, and individuals may be charged with more than one offense. You will explore the demographics that are respective to these individual aggression crimes, noting which offenses are stranger-based, in contrast to those that are idiosyncratic to previously established relationships between the victim and perpetrator.
The second section, though related to the offenses in the first section, focuses on multiple murder and school or workplace violence. We will also explore issues that are tangential to these crimes, including investigative psychology, crime scene investigative methods, different types of criminal profiling, and psychological autopsies. You will likely find this learning topic particularly interesting, as there is a significant amount of applied psychology to supplement the criminological-nature of this material. As you move through this section, you will see that the majority of offenses are stranger-driven—particularly the multiple murder crimes. However, you will also see individual aggression crimes that are not only driven, but in some cases precipitated by some previously established relationship. In school violence crimes, society has witnessed school shootings (some having resulted in multiple homicides), which were reportedly precipitated by bullying behaviors. In the case of workplace violence, a previous relationship existed with either a coworker or a supervisor who may have engaged in administrative bullying of the perpetrator (making that person’s life miserable at work), or the perpetrator may have perceived (accurately, or not) that his termination or loss of a promotion was unfair.
What causes individuals to strike out at others? What are the psychological processes that occur when individuals physically assault or murder others, some of whom are completely innocent with no previous relationship or contact with the perpetrator? As you examine these questions, along with others of your own, you will understand that everyone has a breaking point. Some people express their anger and rage in inappropriate and self-defeating ways.
You have seen news stories on the local and national levels depicting all of these individual aggression crimes in varying degrees of frequency and severity. Certainly, homicide and assault can be researched with many different crime factors, including sexual or terroristic elements. These crimes can also be examined with demographic variables, including age and gender. One of the certainties in exploring these crimes of individual aggression is the need for additional scientific consideration and research. It is only as a result of formal and ongoing multidisciplinary scientific inquiry that the understanding of these offenses will lead to a reduction in the number of victims and perpetrators.
Before you begin your review of this week’s topic, consider the following quote from the late Dwight D. Eisenhower, World War II Commander, and former President: “You do not lead by hitting people over the head. That’s assault.” Some individuals in society regularly try to impose their will on others by way of physical force. Regrettably, there are scores of examples for each of the respective categories of individual aggression crimes—most precipitated by the idiosyncratic motivations of the perpetrator, but some that have been victim-precipitated.
In your personal experience, you may know someone who either perpetrated or was a victim of one of these individual aggression crimes. Anyone who has lived through a violent physical or sexual attack will likely be changed forever in the way they perceive and relate to other people and life in general. These individuals typically describe a sense of “not being in control” of their physical well-being and subsequently experience significant psychological issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), not unlike many combat troops returning from active war zones. In your examination of this topic, consider the issues from both perspectives, the victim, and the perpetrator, as this will further your understanding of these related offenses.
