Forensic Psychology For Dummies (130 page)

Personal goals that are seen to be assisted by violence.

Inability to cope with threats or frustration in a non-aggressive way.

Possibility of brain damage.

Impulsivity and emotional extremes.

Substances that reduce inhibitions, notably alcohol.

Availability of weapons.

Examining the situations in which violence occurs

Violence occurs in a variety of different situations. The psychological implications of violence vary depending on the particular situation, which always need to be closely considered:

Brawls:
These commonly emerge out of interpersonal conflicts between people in competition over some person or resource. They can also be fuelled by struggles for power within particular subgroups. The sometimes ritualistic threats between different gangs can spill over into violent gang fights as well.

Sometimes, all the people involved display a similar degree of aggression. In these cases, the ‘victim’ and the ‘aggressor’ is an accident of timing or the use of a weapon, and things could have easily gone the other way.

Domestic violence:
Sadly, violence takes place between those who share an intimate relationship in many different types of circumstances. This can be the consequence of one partner, typically the man, being a violent individual who expresses his anger, jealousy or frustration only in an aggressive way. His violence can also be coercive, as a way of trying to control aspects of the relationship, such as when the woman indicates she wants to leave him (check out the following section ‘Predicting domestic violence’ for more on this subject).

Situations do occur in which the woman is the violent partner. Most commonly any violence from the woman is in self-defence, but aggressive women sometimes initiate violence. This event can be so unexpected that male victims of such aggression can have difficulty getting law enforcement to take it seriously.

Criminal coercion:
The use of violence as part of criminal activity (
instrumental violence
) can include street muggings, bank robberies, aggravated burglaries and sexual assaults. In such cases, criminals choose to be violent or not. Some bank robbers, for example, insist that they ensure that the people in the bank are so afraid of them that the thieves don’t have to assault them physically. (At least, this is their claim for why they carry a gun.) Many burglars take care only to break into a house if they’re sure they won’t need to confront the occupants. In contrast, other offenders may delight in being physically threatening and seek confrontation.

Don’t think of instrumental aggression as merely a logical choice for criminals: such behaviour is also an aspect of their personalities and a way of interacting with other people.