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Lisa Rochford, PhD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
540-387-3955
811 S. College Ave., Salem, Va.
Normal vs. abnormal moral development
The correlates and suspected causes of youth
violence
Discussion: How can we as therapists foster
moral development and reduce violence in
our community?
Human beings exist in interdependent relationships that entail ethical responsibilities.
The family is the primary sphere in which one learns ethical behavior.
1. How can I avoid punishment?
2. What’s in it for me?
3. Conformity – Trying to be good
4. Law and order mentality
5. Social contract
6. Universal ethical principles
(from clinicians treating RAD)
3 Stages:
Pleasure/Pain (under age 3) Do what brings pleasure, avoid what brings pain
Shame (age 3-7) Get rid of painful feelings of shame (but not
necessarily change behavior)
Mature Guilt (age 7-11) Feel guilt for harming others,
attempt to make amends,
change behavior
Reinforcing behavior you want to encourage,
punish behavior that you want to discourage
James Fox and Jack Levin, data base of mass
murders in US since 1980s, Northeastern
University criminologists, authors of “Extreme
Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder”
J. Reid Meloy, clinical professor of psychiatry at
UC San Diego, School of Medicine, diplomat in
forensic psychology
Adam Lankford, assistant professor of criminal
justice at the University of Alabama, author of
forthcoming book “The Myth of Martyrdom: What
Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage
Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers”
male (94.4 %)
20 to 29 years of age (43.3 %)
White (62.9 %)
Have a relationship with the victim of
some kind (family 39.4 %; other 38.2 %)
Fox & Levin, 2005
Long history of failure and feelings of rejection from childhood, reaching a point where life feels meaningless and the future promises only more of the same.
Feelings of isolation/ no friends/ spending time alone. No emotional support or comfort. No one to help him deal with the demons, encourage him to do the right thing, or provide perspective.
Don’t take responsibility for own inadequacies in relationships but externalize the blame.
Fox & Levin
Power
Revenge
Loyalty
Terror
Profit
Fox and Levin
Thirst for power and control: often dresses in battle fatigues and has a passion for symbols of power, including assault weapons.
Seeks revenge against either specific individuals, particular categories or groups of individuals, or society at large. Most commonly, he seeks to get even with people he knows such as family or the boss and other employees.
Warped sense of love and loyalty or desire to save their loved ones from misery and hardship. Typically it is a husband/father who is despondent over the fate of the family unit. Sometimes, as in the case of the Manson family, the murders are done by a cult group being obedient to their charismatic leader.
May be trying to regain a degree of control over their lives.
Turvey (profiler)
Type of murderer who is usually a stockpiler of guns, assault rifles, grenades, and other exotic weapons.
Their attack is usually the result of careful planning and a desire to lash out against the world which is "not right" in some way.
Victims are usually selected at random
Knoll (2010) notes that this type usually progresses through a revenge fantasy, a hero fantasy, and then a death fantasy (the obliterative state of mind) where they must absolutely “wipe out” or destroy others who are enjoying the things that they cannot have.
They keep a running tally of all the mistreatments they've experienced at the hands of others.
They often verbalize an outburst, like "Death awaits you" or "Have a Nice Day" at the beginning of the mass murder (Hempel et al. 1999).
They are often copycats because if they are captured alive, they will admit they were inspired by others as well hoped to inspire others (Mullen 2004).
Mental illness that produced a desire to die and intensifies the following beliefs:
Deep sense of victimization that is irrational and exaggerated. Belief that killer’s life has been ruined by someone else who has bullied, oppressed, or persecuted him. The key is that the shooter feels violent vengeance is justified. In many cases the target becomes broader and more symbolic than a single person.
Desire to acquire fame and glory through killing. Eric Harris (Columbine): “Isn’t it fun to get the respect we’re going to deserve?” Elementary school – to get as much attention as possible.
Lankford, 2012
No evidence that mass murderers “snap,” but rather plan the murders and how they will carry them out for days or weeks in advance (Kleck, 2009)
Believe that their cultural goals (e.g., wealth, success, etc.) have been blocked.
Individuals who have developed a distorted self concept of themselves. Often feel shame and guilt in response to the negative social appraisals and comparisons they have made and received from other individuals in society. As a result, they accept their inferiority, but also lash out in an attempt to overcome this inferiority.
“The need to belong, defined as the desire for frequent, positive, and stable interactions with others, is a fundamental human motivation...” (Baumeister & Leary, 1995)
Exclusion or rejection causes aggression (Leary et al., 2006)
Some degree of derogation of the other individual appears to be a prerequisite for aggression
When you’re the “out group,” it’s easier to dehumanize the “in group”
In recent years, an “eclipse” of community, dwindling of social relationships including family ties and neighborliness, that once protected us
Less interaction with co-workers if telecommute/work on internet
To counteract, “reaching out to the seemingly isolated stranger sitting alone at the next table in the restaurant or working out with an iPod at the next treadmill”
Fox & Levin, 2009
Between 1949-1998:
Majority of adult mass murderers had various Axis I paranoid or depressive conditions and Axis II schizoid, narcissistic, and antisocial traits and disorders.
50% of the adult murderers had a psychiatric history and two-thirds showed evidence of psychotic symptoms at the time of the killings.
23% of the adolescent murderers had a prior psychiatric history. However, unlike adults, 63% of the adolescent murderers displayed depressive symptoms at the time of the crime, but only two of them ever showed signs or symptoms of psychosis.
Meloy, 2004
Over 2 million youth
arrested each year in the US US Surgeon General’s report
Primary reasons for arrests Substance abuse
Running away & truancy
Deliberate injury to property
Theft
Physical harm or intimidation of
others
4% are for violent crime
Instrumental
dispassionate, deliberate, goal-
driven, to obtain some reward or to
achieve a goal like a victory.
Associated with reduced anxiety.
Reactive
a frustrating or threatening act
triggers the aggression. Associated
with greater anxiety.
Dedicated neural circuitry allows expression
of reactive aggression
Low level of stimulation/Distant threat:
“freezing”
Closer threat: escape-related behavior
Very close threat/escape impossible: reactive
aggression
high in fearlessness
low emotional reactivity
high in thrill/sensation seeking
low in executive control
low in behavioral inhibition
low in responsiveness to punishment cues
More reactive regulatory system: greater
tendency toward reactive aggression with:
Increased aggression with depression & anxiety
Greater stress response can occur with abuse that
damages emotional regulation over time
Hyperactivity
as a Child
At least 50%
Oppositional
Defiant
Disorder
Hofvander et al., 2009
By Puberty
~ 33%
CD
By Adulthood, with ADHD & CD:
much greater risk for social and
emotional failure (thought to be a
genetically based subtype of
ADHD)
~ 50% of those with ADHD/CD develop
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Psychopaths engage in both reactive and
instrumental aggression
Deficits in the ability to process emotion,
including not finding others’ expression of
sadness and fear aversive
Behavioral and Antisocial: associated more
with reactive aggression
Affective and Interpersonal: associated more
with instrumental aggression, data for a
genetic basis
Poor Anger Control
Early Behavioral Problems
Serious Criminal Behavior
Serious Violations of Conditional Release
Criminal Versatility
Stimulation Seeking
Parasitic Orientation
Lacks Goals
Impulsivity
Irresponsibility
Callous/Lack of Empathy
Lack of Remorse
Shallow Affect
Failure to Accept
Responsibility
Impression
Management
Grandiose Sense of
Self Worth
Pathological Lying
Manipulation for Personal Gain
Other
Casual sexual relations
Unstable interpersonal
relations
Impairment in the
naming of fearful
and sad facial
expressions and vocal
affect
OK with angry,
happy, surprised
Reduced autonomic responsiveness to
others’ distress
Intact amygdala – “fearfulness”
can show amygdala is working
well
Responds to the fear and sadness
of victims
With dysfunctional amygdala (psychopathy),
fearlessness, lack of concern for the distress of others
Fail to generate or generate less emotional autonomic responses to fear-inducing stimuli
Anticipating electric shock
Imagining fearful or unpleasant experiences measured via electrodermal response
Reduced aversive conditioning: negative visual primes followed by neutral primes Less startle reflex to neutral than normals
Don’t understand the difference between
conventional and moral transgressions
Conventional – affecting social order (talking in
class)
Moral – harming another person or another
person’s property
Antisocial parents
Parental alcoholism
Inconsistent discipline
Lack of supervision
Also important:
Physical punishment
Poor school performance
Childhood separations
Physical punishment: child more likely to
offend.
Empathy-inducing conversation: reduces
probability of antisocial behavior. Empathy
facilitates moral socialization. Fear hinders
it.
Violent crime peaks in the 4 hours following
the end of the school day (roughly 2–6 p.m.)
35% of offenders in
special education
Mixed evidence on whether it increases
aggression or not
Engage youth in positive connections
Therapeutic relationship with you
Encourage parents to help children socialize
Encouraging opportunities to help others
Strengthen competencies
Assess and then focus on the major risk factors
present for each patient
Increase connections! Focus on Attachment
Improve caregiver-child connection through play and
positive interaction in and out of session with Theraplay®
and other therapies
Allow for attachment with you as the therapist
Assess and assist family dynamics
Be alert for parental psychopathology or alcoholism,
domestic violence
Assess and steer parents to therapy if needed.
Improve parenting practices Reduce physical punishment, foster authoritative
parenting style. Validated programs include:
ADHD and ODD-based programs such as in “Your Defiant Child” (Barkley); “Coping Power Program” (Lochman and Dodge); Aggression Replacement Training (Glick & Gibbs)
Parent Child Interaction Therapy
Love and Logic
Community action Support groups for young adults, including those on
the autism spectrum disorder.
Support for parents of children and young adults with psychological disorders
Focus on children’s specific needs:
Treatment plans in therapy Build coping skills and reduce problems with impulse
control, mood disorder, and anxiety
Watch for signs of psychosis including delusions
Abuse and neglect history Trauma-oriented therapies
School and learning history - possible bullying and learning issues Evaluations by school “child study teams” (free but
parents have to request them) or local psychologists, special education programming
More opportunities for social skills/friendship/special interest groups at school
With misbehavior, focus on the feelings of the victim and
how to make amends.
Activities that focus initially on one’s own feelings as a
point of departure for relating to the feelings of others.
Activities that focus on similarities between oneself and
others, including similar feelings.
Role-playing - imagining and acting out the role of
another.
Sustained practice in imagining/perceiving another’s
perspective.
Excellent guide for
parents and teachers –
click here: http://www.psychroanoke.com/school_improvement_r
esearch_series_-_excellent_empathy_dev_article.pdf
Besides therapies noted above, some of the best:
Small group homes or specialized foster care for offenders emphasizing personal attention and therapeutic treatment
Competency development: concentrate on improvements in academic performance, social competencies, employability, civic and other life skills
Wilderness (not boot) camps: programs providing relatively intense physical activity and therapeutic enhancement
List of Juvenile Justice validated programs:
http://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/programTypesDefinitions.aspx
What have you found to be helpful to do with
patients/families to reduce antisocial
behavior?
What can be done in the therapy session?
What can be done in the schools?
What can be done in the community?