An antidote for mass murder

This year's mass murders perpetrated by James Holmes in the Century 16 Theater in Aurora, Colorado, and Wade Page at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, are hardly aberrations: Over the past 30 years, at least 61 mass killings have been carried out in 30 states, stretching from Massachusetts to Hawaii.

These recurring tragedies beg one essential question: Can we detect early warning signs in the lives of those who resort to such acts of violence?

Some psychologists insist that we can't. "It's awfully hard to generalize about these things," Lawrence Steinberg, professor of psychology at Temple University, was quoted as saying in July. "Some [mass murderers] have long histories of depression, others don't... Some of these are loners... but many aren't. Some are criminally aggressive before committing these crimes, others are not."

On the other hand, in the same article Paul J. Frick, professor of psychology at the University of New Orleans, suggested that violence perpetrated by an adult is frequently a direct outgrowth of aggressive behavior by that individual as a youth.

"Most people who have killed have a history of hurting other people," Frick said. "The key is what sets them off to where they take it to such an extreme."

The DNA delusion

This frustrating lack of consensus has caused some researchers to turn to the DNA of cold-blooded killers in the hope of finding physical evidence of a mental disturbance. "There is strong evidence suggesting that brain abnormalities, whether developmental or as a result of injury, may serve as precursors to antisocial behavior," Andrea Glenn and Adrian Raine assert in The Oxford Handbook of Social Neuroscience.

As a therapist, social worker and certified family life educator who has often dealt with troubled youths, I doubt we will find anything so simple as a compassion gene, or a gene for hateful destruction. Even if a malformed brain could be correlated to acts of extreme violence, this wouldn't indicate that the brain in question would necessarily have developed this way if other factors— like attention, understanding and compassion— had been present.

So the critical question concerning mass murderers, I think, is the same one that has always confronted parents, teachers and mental health professionals who deal with children of any age: How do we learn to listen to a child, to let that child talk, to resist judging the child but instead offer the delicate and crucial degrees of acceptance, support and direction?

Handling adversity

This is the way to give kids the ability to learn to think for themselves and develop confidence in formulating opinions that will help them navigate life's slippery slopes and avoid the perilous choice of either self destruction or destruction of others.

Through this appreciation, parents, teachers and caregivers can identify a child's early cries for help: Perhaps she can't form relationships or can't express a difference of opinion. Perhaps he can handle anger only through extreme irrational outbursts or destructive acts. Often children have a tormented time dealing with their emerging sexuality.

"'Do it my way'

Too many parents believe that good parenting means insisting that their children believe only as they do, which not only stunts a child's emotional and psychological growth but also generates anger that may fester to the point of explosion. Even conscientious parents usually repeat their own parents' approaches to parenting. As the generations pass, behavior that stifles independent thought and decision-making, or that involves ridicule and physical and emotional humiliation, becomes more dangerous to young people— and to our society at large.

America's growing numbers of angry, antisocial and withdrawn children represent the surest argument that every community needs first-class mental health resources available to every school. If these coordinated resources, including professionals in the recognized and respected field of Family Life Education, are integrated into the lives of children and families, I believe we can perceive and address early warning signs and avoid the kind of disasters that have devastated communities like Columbine, Colorado and Red Lake, Minnesota.

What we have witnessed is an essential wake up call: the surest prevention of deviant behavior is mindful early detection and opportunities for growth and change.♦


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