Trauma Becoming Murder
Trauma becoming Murder
Trauma looks different to everyone. What someone considers traumatic may not be so traumatic for the next person, but when something traumatic is experienced it has the potential to change that person forever. It can change the person’s perceptions, behavior, and character. Someone who is normally happy, optimistic, and light hearted can experience trauma and turn into someone who is withdrawn, pessimistic and quiet.
As we learned in the text, development plays the one of the biggest roles in predictive factors of behavior and character as an adult. If a child experiences trauma during development, the experience is so powerful it has the potential to change their brain structure. (Bremner) Research suggests that traumatic experiences are so unhealthy that it can affect brain function in a negative way, causing permanent behavioral and psychological effects in the individual into adulthood.
As of late, citizens are experiencing various levels of traumatic stimuli. The most prominent being the ever worrisome active shooter. There has been an increase in mass shootings and it is important to note that the majority of them are caused individuals and not terrorist organizations. These individuals are identified by the text as lone wolves or people who adapt their own ideologies to justify their violence. I think it is especially important to note that these individuals oftentimes have history of domestic and familial violence and commit suicide after their attacks. As we discussed, these individuals have more than likely been subjected to some sort of traumatic stimuli during development, whether it be with a parent or caregiver, or later in life with a spouse or coworker. This traumatic experience changed the course of their thinking, and had them believing that violence was their only resort.
A preventative measure that could be used in child psychology is profiling. There are five categories of profiling used in criminal investigations: psychological, suspect-based profiling, geographical profiling, crime scene profiling, and equivocal death analysis. If a child psychologist, or social worker, is given a case where there is familial or domestic violence involved, the individual should be profiled as part of their psych evaluation. It could be detrimental to their development for their profile to be forwarded to the right medical professionals to ensure they get the best rehabilitative response. In this way, we can ensure that the child receives rehabilitative therapies to help them cope with their trauma in a healthy way and encourage healthy social relationships that will keep them from isolating themselves and becoming lone wolves. In the case of adults, the therapies can work in the same way to help them identify their unhealthy behavioral patterns and address them so that they can continue the rest of their lives educated on the unhealthy habits and redirected to healthier options.
Bremner, J. D. (2006). Traumatic stress: effects on the brain. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 8(4), 445–461.
Bartol, C. R., & Bartol, A. M. (2017). Criminal Behavior: A Psychological Approach (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.