KRM Chpt 7 ( Lectures 1-3)

• Violent crimes are globally deemed unacceptable in civilized societies
• People fear becoming a victim of senseless violence more than any other type of crime
• Four main categories of so-called violent 'Street crime'


  • Murder
  • Assault
  • Robbery
  • Rape
• Violent crimes that transpire between people known to each other often remain hidden from the public eye
• Aggression


  Part of human existence
• Aggression


  Not synonymous with violence
• An aggressive person is not always violent
• Individuals do not even recognize their behavior as dangerous with the possibility of a violent outcome
• Prediction remains unreliable with regard to determining "dangerousness" or aggression in humans
• Some people who seem to pose no threat may be dangerous on release, while others regarded as dangerous may show no such behavior following release
• "Dangerousness" is not a medical or psychiatric diagnosis as it is too complicated to label someone as that
• Dangerous behavior


  Behavior in which the outcome is likely to be physical harm
• The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) allows practitioners to break confidentiality in some instances if the court is persuaded that the accused poses a threat to the physical and mental health of citizens
• Once declared a dangerous criminal, parole is never an option
• The MacArthur Risk Assessment Study in the United States of America showed that many people would end up in the official judicial system if only prediction was used to determine future behavior
• Many people who are predicted to be violent never show violence
• The tendency among clinicians is to over-predict a person's level of dangerousness. Two out of three predictions are false positives
• A false positive is when a person is labelled dangerous before release, and they never exhibit dangerous behavior again after release
• MacArthur divides risk factors into four categories


  • Employment history and criminal record
  • Age, mental capability and personality
  • Access to Dangerous objects or weapons or general living arrangements
  • Psychiatric state of person and use of narcotics
• Accurate prediction still remains complicated and inaccurate
• 'Screwdriver Rapist' – William Frederich van der Merwe


  • Teased as a child for not being able to read or write
  • Family life was dysfunctional and was abandoned at a young age
  • Started committing theft in Grade 3 which progressed to breaking into houses
  • Befriended a pregnant girl at church and was later rejected by her in which he confronted her and forced her to undress
  • His urge to continue as a serial rapist occurred when he was rejected by another girl on the street. He held a knife to her face and after this repeated his behavior to other girls in secluded places
  • He was then arrested, and it was believed his self-esteem would improve once he could read and write. During this time, he raped 9 woman
  • His modus operandi changed from using a knife to using a screwdriver, hence the name
  • After turning himself in and serving 15 years he was granted parole. A year after his release he picked up two girls (19 and 27 years old) and raped both woman and stabbed the 27-year-old in a forest. He was shot dead by the 19-year-old woman
• This case shows the flaws in the effective assessment of risk, prediction of dangerousness and predicting future violent behavior
• Passive-aggressiveness


  Generally irrelevant when discussing violent crime, since the aggression that is focused on is the type that manifests itself directly in violent or anti-social behavior
• Hostile (expressive) Aggression


  Shown in situations that elicit anger – situations that evoke strong emotional response. The aim is to hurt or cause suffering to the person causing the anger
• Instrumental Aggression


  Caused by competition or the wish or have something that someone else has. Robbery is relevant in this case as it involves a criminal focusing on material goods – laptop, tablet or phone. Initial aim is not to necessarily injure someone physically, emotional and material harm is done to the victim. Perpetrator will use force to get what they want, placing just enough pressure to force the victim to comply
• Gratuitous Violence


  The excessive use of violence after attaining their instrumental goal during a robbery. Perpetrator showing this violence seems to be oblivious to the impact of severely assaulting the victim without any need for it. Gratuitous Violence is used without weighing up the consequences of taking a person's life for small gain
• Factors related to violent behavior


  • Alcohol intoxication
  • Drug abuse
  • Psychosis (mental illness)
  • Neurological disorder
  • Traumatic head injury
  • Socialization
  • Lack of opportunities
  • Frustration
  • Poverty
  • Neighborhood and peer pressure
  • Previously victims of abuse and neglect
  • Personal or cultural belief system
  • Culture of violence in SA
  • Sexualized violence such as rape
  • Domestic violence to control a person
  • Hate crimes towards specific groups due to prejudice or pre-conceived ideas
• Both socialization (Nurture) and genetic factors (Nature) play an important role in the manifestation of aggression
• Three main role models for human behavior


  • Family Members
  • Members of a subculture or peer group
  • The media
• Scripts


  Cognitive programs that a person acquires over time and is stored in their memory and used as a guide to behavior and problem solving. This script eventually becomes resistant to change once it is 'programmed'. Environmental factors are stimuli in a person's life and determines which script is 'appropriate' for the occasion
• An individual who is convinced aggressive behavior is a way of life is more likely to incorporate aggressive scripts for behavior
• One's cognitive script to use violence will be partly determined by nature and partly by nurture
• If someone grows up in an environment where their biological, socioeconomic and environmental factors as well as community circumstances, place them at risk of showing aggressive behavior, their script on aggression will become permanent and relevant in situations where they use this script to guide their behavior
• We need to understand that each person is unique and that an 'underlying' factor in each person still plays a role in the choice to act aggressively and to take up a life of violent crime
• Murder


  Considered malum in se crime, a Latin phrase which means that murder is assess as conduct that is evil and morally wrong in itself
• Murder


  The unlawful and intentional killing of another person
• Essential elements of murder


  • Unlawfulness
  • Killing
  • Person
  • Intent
• Culpable Homicide


  The unlawful negligent killing of another human
• Essential elements of culpable homicide


  • Unlawfulness
  • Killing
  • Human
  • Fault
• Multiple Murders/Multicide


  Killing of multiple victims in one episode or over a period of time – Serial, Spree & Mass murder