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Deutsche Bahn: The Monster of Amstetten (Part Three)
13th June 2008 2:02pm
Dear All,
Additionally to being a psychopath of course Mr Fritzl was an abusive man. He was domineering and aggressive towards his frightened wife and sexually abused his daughter starting from the age of 11, then trapped her in a cellar and raped and beat her repeatedly.
Thus, today's topic is that of domestic abuse and intimate partner violence (IPV). I am limiting this to abuse that occurs between those in an intimate/romantic/sexual relationship, as the topic of family violence and childhood abuse is beyond the scope of this article.
There are of course parallels between the IPV and child abuse literature and both are focussed on the results of the abuse as the defining feature rather than a focus primarily on abusive acts. However the key difference is that while adult abuse is directed towards a presumably psychologically developed individual, child abuse is directed at a developing individual. Thus the range of behaviours considered abusive is overlapping but not completely comparable- examples include neglectful behaviour in child abuse.
First things first
Abusive relationships can involve emotional/psychological abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse. Often these things can co-exist in fact:
Emotional and psychological abuse can be difficult to detect to the outsider- resulting in low detection rates and low rates of complaints. Psychological abuse is better recognised in the child-abuse literature than in the IP literature. This can involve very varied tactics such as:
- Threats to physical health: physical threats, damage to property
- Control of physical freedoms: isolation and restriction of partner access to others, preventing partner from physically leaving, not letting partner sleep or fulfil basic human needs
- General destabilisation of partner identity/perception of reality: convincing partner that they are responsible for and deserve abuse, threats of suicide, threats of abandonment, humiliation and ridicule, verbal abuse and criticism, forcing partner to beg for things, making partner believe they are crazy
- Controlling behaviour: morbid jealousy and suspiciousness, threats of abandonment, emotional and sexual withholding and blackmail, excessive checking up on partner, following, stalking
- Ineptitude: failure to live up to expected roles, clingy and needy behaviours, rigid gender role ideas
(Follingstad, DeHart 2000 - in order of decreasing severity of abuse)
Additionally certain other more innocuous behaviours have been identified as being correllated with psychological and physical abuse- such as excessively physical behaviour in public, suicide threats and other behaviours.
While psychological abuse may be perceived as less harmful, in actual fact it has been shown to have a similar or in some cases higher negative psychological impact on the victim of the abuse- perhaps due to the brainwashing, controlling, psychological and less easy to identify nature of psychological abuse.
In addition, psychological abuse is also a predictor of long-term physical abuse.
Physical abuse includes battering, slapping, punching, biting and otherwise physically assaulting a partner. Sexual abuse runs the gamut from coercive sexual assault to severe repetitive rape.
The Abuser
Let me trot out the old line: Domestic abuse is
common. In particular, Intimate Partner Violence (sexual and physical abuse) has a lifetime prevalence of victimisation in Australia of 16-20% among females and 4-9% among males.
Once again as in other behaviour such as stalking, abuse has been reported to be perpetrated with comparable frequency by females as males. The range of behaviour and the physical threat is different, however- females are more likely use psychological forms of abuse and are less likely to inflict grievous bodily harm when physically abusing (perhaps reflected in the lower rate of male physical victimisation). There is, as ever, significant overlap.
As in the previous articles, we will discuss various psychiatric syndromes and motivations behind the abuse.
Abusive Personalities
In the IPV literature, there is a common trend for between 2-4 typologies of abusers to be identified. Generally speaking, there is a clear distinction made between the occasionally violent, mostly normal personality offender and the far more violent, personality disordered abuser.
Attachment styles as pictured above are a way of conceptualising relationships. Those who have good self-esteem and see others as good are likely to form positive, secure relationships. Those who have poor self-esteem but see others as good are likely to be anxious and preoccupied about their worthiness in the relationship and thus preoccupied with thoughts and fears of abandonment- much like those with Borderline Personality Disorder. Those however with good self-esteem but who view others with suspiciousness or look down on others tend to have a "dismissing" attachment style- they look down upon their partners and tend to be colder and less responsive towards their emotional needs, thus making them comparable to those with Paranoid and Psychopathic/Narcissistic traits. Finally we have the "fearful" attachment style- that of those with poor self-esteem and who view others with suspiciousness or fear. This style is characterised by avoidance of intimacy due to fear of rejection.
Thus one would expect that the "secure" and "fearful" attachers would be least likely to be abusive- they would either be content with no reason to abuse or too scared to enter a relationship in the first place. The "pre-occupied"/borderline attachers may lash out due to their insecurities and fear of rejection while the "dismissing"/antisocial/paranoid attachers may lash out due to seeing their partner as inferior or bad.
Ehrensaft et al. (2006) find in their large longitudinal study that all personality disorder clusters are positively correlated with abusiveness. All clusters were moderately associated with each other- it was more likely for someone to exhibit other personality disorder traits if they had a personality disorder already. Cluster A and B were the most correlated with abusiveness. In particular, a combination of jealous, suspicious, paranoid (cluster A) and emotionally volatile, impulsive, unpredictable (cluster B) behaviour was found to be strongly correlated with abuse. After accounting for cluster A and B traits, however, the remaining compltely independent cluster C traits were actually found to be
protective against abusiveness- perhaps because those who are fearful of others are also less likely to be aggressive towards them.
Dutton (2007) in his book "The Abusive Personality" on the other hand notes 3 main typologies.
There is the impulsive, brooding, cyclically loving, clingy, needy and abusive violent, angry, jealous type- most likely to score very highly on measures of borderline personality traits. Described as "Jekyll & Hyde", a person who seems like a perfect partner, then starts brooding and getting more and more volatile until he/she finally lashes out violently. This is followed by gifts and other behaviour to make up for the bad behaviour.
There is the coldly calculating extremely violent (antisocial/psychopathic) type who controls, is constantly angry, batters severely and often uses instruments such as weapons, chairs, frying pans, what comes to hand to inflict severe violence.
Finally there are those who are passive, avoidant and often quite dependent- those who, due to their overcontrolled nature bottle up all of their negative emotions and anger until they finally explode in a bout of rare rage, sometimes with lethal consequences.
There are some parallels between this model, attachment theory and Ehrensaft's model.
Dutton also speaks of 2 types of co-existing traits- combined violent and borderline traits and combined passive and borderline traits. These combinations tend to be associated with greater violence and adverse outcomes.
Holtzworth-Munroe et al have the most complex model following a 3 year longitudinal study of 102 couples recruited from the community who had had an incident of IPV.
By far the largest category of couples (55%) scored close to normal on personality testing, with very low scores on measures of both psychopathy and borderline traits. These they denoted FO or "Family Only" Batterers. They had some passive personality traits (but not enough to qualify for a diagnosis of personality disorder). They were the least likely to have suffered physical or sexual abuse as a child and least likely to suffer from substance abuse disorders. They were the most loving, securely attached and remorseful and had the most liberal political and gender ideas. They also committed the lowest level of violence and only reported occasional violence vs family with no violence outside the family. They also had the most stable relationships. They could be considered to be securely attached.
Next there was a category known as BD or "Borderline/Dysphoric". These had high scores on the Borderline Personality Organisation Questionnaire and reported low mood, self-esteem and the lowest relationship satisfaction of all groups. They were also the most jealous of all three groups, being morbidly jealous as a group. They tended to visualise their partner as part of their self-identity rather than another individual. Additionally they saw themselves at times as a "knight in shining armour" or "rescuer" of their spouse. They were needy and clingy and desired their partner to be dependent on them. Their relationships had intermediate stability. They could be considered to have preoccupied attachment.
The most aggressive and violent category was the GVA, "Generally Violent Abuser" category. These abusers scored very highly on the Hare Psychopathy Self-Report Questionnaire measure of psychopathy. They were very likely to commit many acts of violence outside the family setting, have friends/peers with misogynistic/violent/criminal attitudes and to have significant alcohol and substance abuse problems. They were also the group who had experienced the highest rate of and most severe child abuse. They were emotionally void, felt the least love and tended to see their partner as an object rather than fellow human. They also tended to blame their victims, have the most conservative gender roles. They had the most unstable relationships with by far the majority experiencing repeated separations and many having had their partner file for divorce after 3 years.
Lastly there was the LLA "Low Level Aggression" category. They were like a much less severe form of the GVA category. They had moderate scores on psychopathy and were intermediate on all measures between the GVA and FO categories.
Interestingly although there were psychologiical differences found between the BD, GVA and LLA categories, these differences were not found to be statistically significant. The authors posited that this may mean that these categories have a great deal of overlap and may in fact be subtypes of the same psychological phenomenon, the cluster B/paranoid violent type. Also there were no significant differences between FO abusers and the general population- a finding which warrants further investigation as to how they differ from non-abusers.
Discussion
All groups in the Holtzworth-Munroe study showed a reduction in violence as reported by both the abuser and victim over time- a finding which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. It is unknown at this stage whether this finding will be replicated and whether there was self-selection bias evident. This does however correlate with the finding that personality disorder scores in individuals and incidence in the community decrease slowly with age after a peak in the early 20s, reflecting greater maturity and moderation of undesirable traits with time.
All studies found a strong correlation between child abuse (including physical punishment, neglect, more severe physical abuse, sexual abuse) and future IPV. This alone should be argument enough to oppose the use of physical force against children and to oppose sexual abuse of minors.
There is also a dichotomy found in all studies between normal/passive occasional abusers and the cluster B (+/- A) impulsive/jealous/borderline/antisocial routinely violent abusers- often with a jealous subtype identified.
The major weakness in these typologies is the lack of an explanatory model for the personality changes and future abuse as well as perhaps being simplistic in their formulations. On a population level this all makes sense- how about on an individual basis? It is also noted that co-abuse is common. How does this factor into models of abuse?
There is a multifactorial Bayes network that has been produced to show risk factors to predict sexual offending. A similar sort of network may be what is needed in this area.
I offer the following two theoretical flowcharts in lieu:
As you see, there is one pathway for those with normal personality but low assertiveness and high partner dissonance. The other pathway depicts the evolution of the borderline and the psychopathic abuser via triggers and innate ideas about self and others.
Further research must of course be done!
Additionally, once again I must emphasise that these typologies and mechanisms suggest intervention strategies depending on underlying psychological pathology. The "normal" offender may benefit from assertiveness training and relationship counselling and other forms of psychotherapy. The "borderline" offender needs more intense psychotherapy and therapy directed towards the style of problem-solving and attachment style. The "psychopathic" offender of course requires better problem solving strategies as well as behavioural controls and a large degree of monitoring in the community.
Yours,
Deutschy- who is taking a brief hiatus from academia until the last 2 articles.
Deutsche Bahn: The Monster of Amstetten (Interlude cont.)
9th June 2008 12:59pm
Dear All,
Some supplementary pictures to the previous post:
Yes, the next post shall be soon.
Yours,
Deutschy.
Deutsche Bahn: The Monster of Amstetten (Interlude)
8th June 2008 2:25pm
Dear All,
Time for a primer in a subject that I need to introduce properly before I give you the next subject.
Josef Fritzl is a man with severe personality problems. He was known to be a domineering, egotistical, egocentric man who bullied his wife, abused his daughter, and, well, kept her locked in a basement with their children and raped her repeatedly! In this case his primary psychiatric disorder is not any form of madness, depression, anxiety or otherwise. It is in fact his personality. In this post, we do a quick run through of what a personality disorder is.
Personality Disorders- an overview
Generally speaking, we can split psychiatric diagnoses in the following way:
- Axis I: major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, autism, substance abuse disorders, attention deficit disorder, delirium
- Axis II: disorders of personality
- Axis III: medical (read: biological) diagnoses which contribute psychologically, such as thyroid disorders, cancers, etc
- Axis IV: psychosocial support network
- Axis V: global assessment of function score (0-100, 0 = death, 100 = fully functional)
What is a disorder of personality? How can you have a
disordered personality as such? Simply put, a personality disorder occurs when someone has:
- A stable, ongoing pattern of behaviour, thoughts, emotions and social function (since adolescence or early adulthood)
- That differs markedly from the cultural norm
- Causes significant social/occupational/functional impairment or distress
- And is not better accounted for by another mental, medical disorder or substance use
So, that asshole who antagonises every client without fail and gets constant complaints about him? The 30 year old drama queen (male or female) who is always full of gossip and never seems particularly sincere? The suspicious weird old lady down the street who everyone is convinced is a witch? That guy at work who always lets everyone walk all over him? That needy, intense woman who stalks her exes? These are examples of potential personality problems. It is their personality, the
exaggerated nature of their behaviour, emotions, thoughts, interactions that is at fault.
This is not to say that personality is not something which has a great deal of
normal individual variation. All the above four features need to be fulfilled for this to be a personality disorder. Simple eccentricity, oddness, quirkiness or other differences are not a disorder- for something to be a personality disorder it needs to cause some sort of ongoing functional impairment or distress. Nor does it mean that someone with a personality disorder is incapable of future functionality because it is their intrinsic personality which is problematic- it is certainly quite possible for someone to moderate their behaviour, thoughts, emotions.
"Everyone has a personality with character traits such as stinginess, generosity, arrogance and independence. But when these traits are rigid and self-defeating, they may interfere with functioning and even lead to psychiatric symptoms. Personality traits are formed by early adulthood, persist throughout life and affect every aspect of day to day behavior. Individuals with personality disorders often blame others for their problems."
-BehaveNet.com
The Clusters - an Overview
Cluster A
Cluster A can be considered the "aloof, suspicious" group. They have in common propensities to some of the "negative" symptoms of schizophrenia - ie social withdrawal, suspiciousness, flattened emotions etc.
Paranoid Personality Disorder
This personality disorder is exactly what it says on the packet; it is characterised by an excessively suspicious, paranoid nature. People who suffer from this tend to be constantly questioning others' motives and see others as a threat. They are preoccupied with ideas of lack of loyalty and others' trustworthiness. They also bear grudges strongly and tend to take offence easily as they believe others to be attacking them.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
Schizotypal personality disorder is what can almost be considered to be part way on the spectrum of schizophrenia itself (though much milder). In fact, family members of people with schizophrenia and related disorders are much more likely to have this personality disorder. It is a disorder which is in fact characterised by the less paranoid and more, well, odd features of schizophrenia - albeit without being floridly psychotic. This includes- eccentric behaviour, speech and ideas, belief in magical and superstitious things, paranoia, social anxiety and a withdrawn nature, flattened emotions.
Schizoid Personality Disorder
These people tend to be socially uninterested and somewhat indifferent. They do not really miss the lack of social closeness with others, nor the variety of experiences. Praise and criticism does not really affect them. They seem somewhat aloof, but not because of nervousness, just because of a very solitary nature.
Cluster B
Cluster B personality traits are characterised by extroverted, emotionally unstable and often anxious and/or aggressive behaviour. In addition, there are often distortions of self-esteem, self-identity and impaired empathy.
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a disorder which was previously included in the DSM in place of the rather contentious and amorphous Antisocial Personality Disorder. There are said to be two major trait factors involved in psychopathy. Factor 1, "Aggressive Narcissism", connotes the selfish, remorseless, callous, charming, grandiose, shallow, flirtatious traits. Factor 2, "Socially Deviant Lifestyle" connotes the emotionally unstable, antisocial, violent, deviant, impulsive, parasitic, delinquent, stimulation-seeking traits. Thus, psychopaths lack empathy, are emotionally labile and generally superficially charming, very manipulative and guilt-free; they are impulsive, irresponsible, uncontrolled, hedonists. This category overlaps with both Narcissistic, histrionic personality disorders and Antisocial personality disorder.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Once again, the narcissist is what the label says. They are egocentric and believe they are self-important, unique, special and worthy of special treatment and rewards. They are obsessed with fantasies of power, success, beauty; they are manipulative, lack empathy, are arrogant and fluctuate between envy and the belief that everyone wants to be just like them.
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Histrionic means what most people think of as "hysterical"- these are what most would term the "drama queen". Attention-seeking, flirtatious, shallow, dramatic, with swinging moods and a bit, well, intense. Larger than life, and quite full-on.
Antisocial Personality Disorder, Conduct Disorder
Antisocial Personality disorder encompasses 2 main types of traits- the psychopathic traits as defined above as well as criminality. Needful to this diagnosis is also the diagnosis of Conduct Disorder, the juvenile equivalent of this disorder.
Conduct Disorder has several categories of behaviour: aggression to people and animals; destruction of property; lying/theft; serious violations of parental rules.
Borderline Personality Disorder
Borderline personality disorder is a very overrepresented category of person who presents to hospitals, in particular to emergency departments. These people are strange cookies, and it is very likely you have met at least one- it is a fairly common disorder with an incidence of roughly 2%.
BPD involves very unstable relationships, self-image, emotions and very impulsive behaviour. They are clingy and needy as they are constantly in fear of being abandoned. They alternately idolise and demonise people, often rapidly. They have little sense of who they are and think of themselves often as an empty void. They very often self-harm, threaten and attempt suicide - often as a response to their extreme anxiety. Their moods swing violently; they are often uncontrollably angry and sad. They do impulsive things, including self-destructive sexual relationships, gambling, spending. Under extreme circumstances they can become paranoid or even have anxiety related dissociation.
Cluster C
These are the anxious personality disorders. People who have always been a bit nervous. One can think of these disorders almost as the over-controlled, introverted counterparts to the Cluster B disorders.
Avoidant Personality Disorder
These people are inhibited, inadequate and over-sensitive to criticism and have poor self-esteem. In an attempt to avoid censure, rejection, embarrassment, they avoid social contact, relationships, any sort of risk. They believe themselves to be inferior, unappealling, inept, unloveable. They are shy.
Dependent Personality Disorder
Dependency in this case comes from a need to be taken care of, inability to make one's own decisions and fear of being left alone. There is difficulty making decisions without reassurance, advice; a need for others to take responsibility; inability to start things without others' support; neediness, passivity and submissive behaviour due to fear of rejection if they are assertive; fear of being alone and need for a constant relationship.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
OCPD is what the lay person may think of as an obsessive-compulsive person. Someone who is anally retentive, obsessed with organisation, perfection, lists, rules, work, productivity, morality. They are rigid, perfectionistic, can be miserly and sometimes even hoard things.
Passive-Aggressive Personality
This is sometimes included as part of Cluster C. Passive-aggressive people are unassertive and have difficulty expressing anger. As a result, they are resentful, sullen and express their anger through passive forms such as inviting criticism, performing poorly, being obstructive.
Not Otherwise Specified
Yes, they meet the criteria for a personality disorder but it does not fall neatly into a category, or is undefined by the above clusters.
While people may fit easily into a personality disorder category, it is sometimes more useful to conceive of personalities as containing personality traits, cluster traits or similar.
New material in the next post.
Yours,
Deutschy, prolific!
Deutsche Bahn: Sex Writing
8th June 2008 11:49am
Dear All,
I am sick of reading about sex. The gory detail of it. That animalistic fuck. And even worse, its intellectualisation.
That above sentence is a prime example what I do not like about sex writing. There is a type of sex writing which is kind of like porn writing but intellectualised so that it is meant to be a form of art (I do not put "American Psycho" in that category- it is not porn writing, it is shocking literature). This sex writing however fails on some fundamental level. Maybe it is the literary version of "erotica"- meant to titillate on some level while posing.
What I do not like has nothing to do with is wank, its literary aspirations, its oh-so-casual dropping of the F- and the C-bombs while interspersing words like "interspersing". It is the way it makes me feel.
You read and read, and you are tumescent, wet, hard, slippery and yearning. You want. Want to be slammed against a wall and penetrated, or watched while you masturbate furiously, or tied up and have things done to you or... And then suddenly something hits you and you shrivel. And that thing is yourself. The fact that This Has Really Happened to the writer, but not you, or that there is an implicit belief that this behaviour is Dirty, or perhaps just the strange coldness of the capital-F Fucking.
There is no love in the world of sex writing. Only the fuck. Only cock and pussy and erect nipples and muscle and hair. And for some reason it is far worse than porn. It is not exactly that porn does not "pretend" and this does; maybe it is that it purports to be the Real World of sex or at least what the cool kids are all doing. Maybe it is the idea of these cold, intellectual women-sluts and these animalistic almost monstrous hairy man-monsters. Not playful nymphs and fauns, but sirens and satyrs. Harsh, hungry, angry sex. Angrier and more violent than porn. And very different from real sex.
---
Take it from me, I am a slut. I do not get as much as it may seem but I evidently have more one night stands than a lot of people. But. I like sex. And what I like about it is- the cuddling afterwards, the awkward removal of clothing, the breath on your neck, the clumsiness, the stickiness, the yearning, the warmth. The knowledge that someone else is in you, or that you are in someone else- hands, penis, tongue, whatever- you are together, one, just for a moment. The scent of other, the taste of salt, of skin. The talking. The kissing. The random weird kink that the other wants or that you want- and getting it. Knowing that it is only for tonight and that you can be filled, fulfilled, emptied, renewed, replenished and be free afterwards also. Or the communication of sex- the "I like you", the "I want to be on top of you", the "touch me".
The stupid human, artless but almost spiritualness.
---
So that is why I do not like sex writing. I guess ... it is just not me.
Yours,
Deutschy, connected.
Deutsche Bahn: The Monster of Amstetten (Part Two)
24th May 2008 1:17pm
Dear All,
The developments in the case of Josef Fritzl continue to unfold, some predictable and some less so; the lodgers that knew of the sexual abuse but did not report it (it was 1980 so this is unsuprising), the no less than eight heavy metal security doors to prevent his charges from leaving, his domineering behaviour towards his wife and others, his trips to Thailand leaving us wondering about... an accomplice to this horrific crime?
Today we use this- as I must make clear once again very extreme example as a launching board for a discussion on the nature of rape, rapists and stalking.
What is Rape
Sexual assault (including rape as sub-category) is a common crime in Australia affecting 0.3-0.7% of the total population per year and affecting close to 20% of 18-24 year old women in the past 12 months(!) Only 15% of sexual assaults are reported to the police.
Let us define rape. This is difficult as can be evidenced by a quick google search for
definitions of rape. Let us go with the following for now:
"Rape is defined as forced, manipulated or coerced sexual intercourse (or other sexual act) against the will of the victim. If the act occurs while the victim is unconscious, asleep or otherwise unable to communicate unwillingness, it is still considered rape."
(As per Massacheusetts law)What is Stalking
Stalking too is a common phenomenon, affecting some 23% of people throughout their lifetime, and with rates of 32% amongst people aged 18-35.
There are various definitions of stalking in legal and academic literature. The nature of the behaviours and the intent are controversial areas- if the intent is romantic in nature, is it stalking? Similarly, if it is a seemingly innocent gesture but is repeated and done in such a way to cause (reasonable) fear, is it stalking? Consensus however is reached when it comes to the effect on the victim: it is necessary that the conduct causes the victim to fear for his/her safety. Thus I use the following definition:
"Stalking refers to a course of conduct by which one person repeatedly in?icts on another unwanted intrusions to such an extent that the recipient fears for his or her safety."
(Purcell, Pathé, Mullen 2004)Who Rapes, Stalks- and Why?
Many models have been proposed for rape, stalking, sexual murder and sexual assault, striving to represent the diversity of motive and execution evident in the crime.
Summary of Convicted Rapists
Not all rapists (I must point out once again) are psychopathic- fully
half are non-psychopathic.
>95% of reported rapes have a male perpetrator. However female rapists are likely very underrepresented due to sociocultural factors and attitudes.
It is also to be noted that rapists carry a recidivism rate (for all crimes) of roughly 50%- the highest rate for violent offenders; by contrast, paedophiles carry a rate of only 2%- the
lowest. (Just thought you'd find that interesting)
Summary of Convicted Stalkers
Stalking has only recently entered the popular lexicon despite reports of stalking behaviours since at least the 1800s; it became a common term only some time in the 1980's, as a response to celebrity stalkers. This became more generalised to harrassment and predatory behaviour towards non-famous victims.
In contrast with rape, the gender split with perpetrators is roughly 50/50. Once again, this difference may represent greater social acceptability for people to report female stalkers than female rapists.
Various studies of stalkers have also shown that concurrent psychiatric problems (whether psychosis, mood disorder or personality related) were almost universal in this group.
The FBI Model of Violent Crime
The FBI have a model which divides rapists (and other violent criminals) into "organised" and "disorganised" subtypes. Organised being those who plan carefully, leave few traces of their crime, do not do random acts of "ultra-violence". Disorganised being those who display "chaotic" features (such as ultra-violence, lack of planning, messiness, etc.)
The FBI model has very little evidence to back it and unsurprisingly is widely derided as simplistic, artificial, unreaistic and, well, incorrect.
More Modern Typologies of Rape, Stalking and Sexual Murder
The only reason for the multiplicity of categories in the diagram below is because of the overlap present in the typologies of rapists, sexual murderers and stalkers in the studies below. These studies took data from crime scenes, criminals and victims and came up with distinct behavioural and motivational clusters.
(Click for larger version)However, when you compare the studies it would be more accurate to speak of roughly 6 subtypes as follows:
- 1a: Violent, aggressive types who are motivated by pure revenge against the victim. Thus, entirely violent, paranoid motivations, associated with paranoia as well as Cluster B* (antisocial, narcissistic, borderline, histrionic) personality traits.
- 1b: Violent, angry and power-obsessed types who are motivated because of (perceived) rejection by the victim. Thus, sex/intercourse is also a factor. Associated with Cluster B traits.
- 2a: Socially inept, intimacy seeking, incompetent types who do not know any other sure-fire method of procuring intimacy/intercourse and/or who rape because they feel socially inadequate and insecure. They are purely motivated by the desire for sex/intimacy and only use as much force is necessary to get what they want. Murder is an accidental sequel to this. Usually socially inept/of low IQ.
- 2b: Delusional, intimacy seeking types who believe that their victim is in love with them back. Associated with psychosis and schizophrenia.
- 3: Sadistic, fetishistic, predatory types who plan meticulously and whose motivation is complex violent sexual fetish- an extreme form of the combination of sex and violence. Very dangerous, unrepentant, skilled. Associated with psychopathy and extreme paraphilias.
- 4: "Other". This more nebulous group includes oppportunistic, inept, short term, unplanned acts of random violence, often associated with the commission of other crimes including robbery.
*Cluster B personality disorders include: antisocial (violence, disregard for others' rights, egocentrism, low empathy, includes the subgroup of psychopaths), narcissistic (egocentricity, inflated self-esteem, callous disregard for others), histrionic (attention-seeking, shallow but dramatic moods, egocentrism, overdramatic), borderline (unpredictable behaviour, low self-esteem, inner emptiness, clingy behaviour, mood swings, rapid change from idolisation to demonisation). This group of disorders has high overlap and there is a (possibly cultural) propensity for men to be diagnosed (or misdiagnosed) with APD or narcissism vs women and BPD or histrionicity.So you see, it is not as simple as "organised" vs "disorganised", "sane" vs "insane", or "rape as power". Rape has many many motivations including power, sex, revenge, delusion, opportunity. Similarly it is not just psychopaths who rape.
Fully half of all rapes are committed by people who have other psychological problems, or even no identifiable psychological problem at all.
The results of the rape are also varied. Someone who is motivated by an inept desire for intercourse may end up killing the victim. Someone motivated by psychopathic predatory thoughts may only stalk their victim and never proceed to rape or sexual murder.
MTC:R3 - Towards a More Complex Model of Rape
I did lie. There was some significance to the multiplicity of categories.
(Click for larger version)The Massachusetts Treatment Center Rapist typology, Version 3 (Knight & Prentky, 1990)
This taxonomy (think species) of rapists is more nuanced and based on a larger set of data. Rather than relying on 4-6 unrelated categorisation, it incorporates underlying psychopathology, motive and the level of violent and/or sexual motivation that is behind these rapes.
There is, then, an interesting distinction that comes about which I shall illustrate below:
(Click for larger version)I have recoloured the diagram so that the level of red represents sexualisation and the level of yellow represents violence.
In non-psychopathic sexual offenders, violence and sexualisation are inversely correlated- they range from red to yellow with only a very muted orange in-between. However, in psychopathic sexual offenders, violence and sexualisation are positively correlated- they are only various shades of orange. Note that this is true only for psychopathic RAPISTS, not for ALL psychopaths. Thus, perhaps in that minority of psychopaths who rape, violence and sex are much of the same emotion. This is in fact reinforced by the finding that while the VRAG (violent risk appraisal guide) which includes the PCL:R (the most common scale for measuring psychopathy) is a reasonable predictor for psychopathic rape and recidivism, an adjusted scale known as the SORAG (sex offending risk appraisal guide) which includes physical measurement of sexual arousal to sexual deviance in fact correlates with this criminal behaviour much better.
And here we reach perhaps the crux of what I used to not understand about this crime. How such a thing could be done.
How could someone do this?
Some people do not know how to have sex, so they force it out of someone to get their way; they do not know much better. Some people are particularly angry and want to hurt and humiliate someone in particular and they know the effect that rape has; it is not about sex, it is about power and violence. Some people are just so horny and angry at the same time, or so turned on by domination and humilation that they plot and plan and find a victim to lash out at and fulfil their fantasies.
And.
Some people do it because there's someone right there and they just
can, very easily- maybe just ignore that they're saying no or that they passed out or that they're drunk or drugged or happened to be there, pretend that it was the heat of the moment and they were really asking for it and how could someone stop themselves in that situation. I mean,
you understand don't you? It's not like [
person] would've ever been in that position if they didn't really want it, and you know how [
person] is such a tease and they put me in this position where I just couldn't help myself. What are you gonna do in that situation? Just stop?
I guess my point is that many people are apologists for the opportunity rapist and the date rapist. In fact, there are many who argue that it is not rape or that in that situation maybe they would do the same thing, or that the victim is to blame for the assault. Look at the underlying thought process and see its real meaning though:
"I raped because I could"
It is an abnormal thought process. It is in fact a psychopathic thought process. It is not the product of the usual human mind. The "I could not stop myself" and the "she was asking for it" are merely excuses and justifications for the true reason- "because I could".
Discussion
I believe that it is facile and simplistic to conclude that distinguishing particular patterns of rape means that some rapes (as defined above) are not rapes or that rape is a lesser crime according to motivation or psychopathology. The effect on the victim of the rape is dependent on many factors including the psychology of the victim- we do not claim that it is not a rape if the victim recovers better from the psychological trauma, so why should we claim that it is not a rape if the motivation for the rape was X, Y or Z?
Sentencing is yet another issue and an altogether unrelated one. Sentencing takes into account societal impact, likelihood of recidivism and other factors- it is not and should not be interpreted purely as a measure of morality. It is a means by which society maintains social control, order, attempts to reduce the likelihood of crime and segregates the potential recidivist from potential future victims.
Some rapists, stalkers, sexual murderers are far more amenable to rehabilitation than others. Some rehabilitation exercises do reduce recidivism and some do not. These factors are very important to find because of the following statistics:
- 50% of rapists re-offend in some way
- 50% do not
- Nearly all stalkers who harrass their victims have an associated psychiatric diagnosis- which may vary from frank schizophrenia/psychosis to an embedded personality disorder.
- Non-psychopathic offenders respond well to rehabilitation and therapy- some reoffend anyway but in significantly lower numbers
- Psychopathy as a personality trait has shown very little promise for treatment and psychotherapies used for non-psychopathic offenders in fact increase or have no effect on recidivism rate- but early research suggests psychopathic offenders may show lower recidivism rates as a result of punishment/behaviour based regimens
Thus, as a heterogenous group of people it is important that society does more research and action into finding appropriate stategies for managing these complex crimes. There is some suggestion that the gradually increasing sentence and taboo against rape has in fact led to a far lower rate of conviction for offenders than previously- someone is far more likely to plead guilty to a 2 year sentence than a 10 year one.
Perhaps we should champion a graded system for rape and sexual assault- the first offence being 2 years and psychiatric evaluation, treatment and rehabilitation. The 2nd offence, 5 years with treatment and close community monitoring, the 3rd 10 years with treatment and very intensive community monitoring. First time offenders would be more likely to admit to their crime and all would undergo measures to attempt to rehabilitate them. However the punishment would increase with each subsequent offence- and remember it is much easier to reconvict someone than to convict someone on a first time offence. Accordingly there should be close surveillance of this vulnerable group to lessen the risk of re-offending.
With stalking, the psychiatric diagnosis is paramount; some stalkers are experiencing a frank psychotic episode and requite psychiatric hospitalisation and treatment. Others may be motivated by a personality disorder such as borderline personality or psychopathy. Depending on what this is, treatment and punishment should proceed accordingly.
Conclusion
Rape and stalking are common crimes affecting a large percentage of the population. They are also under-reported crimes. Thus it is highly likely if not definitely true that we all know someone who has been raped, stalked or both. Even if the number of perpetrators is low - this would imply a high re-offending rate, consistent with the data. Not only are these crimes common, but their incidence far outweighs the likelihood of a false report. False reports no doubt happen and it is very unfortunate and vindictive if they do so; however such events are very rare indeed and far more common is true rape, stalking and sexual assault.
Rapists and stalkers both commit their crimes for a variety of reasons, sexual, violent or both. These reasons include desire for intimacy, revenge/retaliation, sexual fetishism and pure opportunity. Both rapists and stalkers have a high rate of recidivism and co-existing psychiatric diagnosis, whether it be psychotic, mood-related or personality disorder including psychopathy. They are a complex group of criminals with varying motivations and modes of activity but this makes their crimes no less wrong.
Similarly, victims range from young women of reproductive age to babies to old women to old men to young men and anywhere in between. This variability indeed highlights the fact that no victim of rape or stalking is deservent of the crime but is in fact a "convenient object" for the commission of the crime. If it were not them, it would be someone else, so to speak.
It is important that we recognise that these crimes do happen to people we know and are far more common than we realise. It is also very important not to blame the victim and to realise that most of the perpetrators are mentally ill individuals who require psychiatric treatment, rehabilitation and/or even segregation from the greater community.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Yours,
Deutschebahn, Creator of the "Polar Express"
Snipergirl: Sequelae
5th May 2008 9:49am
KermitTheFrog joked (with irony):
"When a diplomat says 'Yes' he means 'Maybe'
When he says 'Maybe' he means 'No'
& If he says 'No' then he isn't a Diplomat at all!
When a lady says 'No' she means 'Maybe'
When she says 'Maybe' she means 'Yes'
& If she says 'Yes' then she isn't a Lady at all!"
So I said:
"Horses sweat,
Men perspire
& Women glow"
And quite unrelatedly to the above was the statement from our dear
Kermit but quite sequential to our former
joke:
"I've seen all the Star Trek movies!
Star Trek 1,
Star Trek 2,
Star Trek 3,
Star Trek 4,
Star Trek 5,
Star Trek 6,
Star Trek 175384..."
Deutsche Bahn: The Monster of Amstetten.
1st May 2008 12:01pm
Dear All,
By now I am sure you have heard the tale of Josef Fritzl, the 73 year old man who, having sexually abused his daughter since the age of 11, proceeded to imprison her in his basement at the age of 18 for 24 years, serially raping her and conceiving upon her 7 children. He was also known to treat his wife with utter contempt and humiliate her at every possible opportunity. He was, it seems, a very disturbed individual- having had prior convictions for multiple sexual assault, rape and arson. No one but an utter psychopath would be capable of what he has done.
I use this as an extreme example of the bizarre situation our society is facing. For to see Josef Fritzl is to see reflected the worst of our collective humanity expressed. We as people may never have any even unconscious desire to do what this man has done however as a society this sort of thing has been happening. We cannot deny this.
Let us presume that Fritzl is in that 0.001% of people that perpetrate these horrors. He is one end of a spectrum of criminal psychopathic behaviour. The complete absence of these traits on the other end. Let us presume that we all fit somewhere on this spectrum.
Psychopathy and its less severe cousin sociopathy are disorders that are defined by the complete lack of empathy in its "sufferers". There are genetic and social contributors to these conditions; functional families engender psychopaths albeit in far lower proportion to highly dysfunctional ones- which engender far more in the way of psychopathic behaviour.
To be a psychopath is not necessarily to be a rapist, murderer, criminal; likewise to be sexually attracted to children is not necessarily to be a kiddie-fiddler; to think oneself fat is not necessarily to have an eating disorder. People channel their behaviour with conscious intent and motive- and so not all people with a personality disorder such as psychopathy will commit crimes.
Psycho/sociopathic people typically are described as superficially charming and seemingly likable. It is only later that their manipulative, parasitic, risk-taking and sometimes criminal behaviours become noticed by others. Sometimes they are not noticed at all by some.
The current proportion of adult males with antisocial personality disorder, a category which includes psychopathy is estimated as 3%, and that in adult females 1%. The incidence of conduct disorder, the juvenile prequel to psychopathic behaviour in adulthood has tripled between the 30s and the 60s. It is believed that this number has increased further since.
But why?
There are many reasons but this is one that I posit today:
In a culture where we promote individualism, wealth, success, sexual prowess, selfishness, competition, fame, aggression, superficial charm, a deeply cynical uncaring, vengeful, "objective" approach to problem-solving; deny the existence of genuine altruism, love, hope, generosity, mercy, justice, fairness and decency; label sadness, belief, trust and the like as signs of "weakness"; experience skyrocketing levels of social disconnectedness and lack of familial support...
... is it any surprise that these statistics are rising?
It just seems odd to me that we despise psychopaths but espouse their core characteristics as "strong" and to be aspired to.
Similarly I find it odd that we as a society find paedophiles so contemptible and evil that we will even lynch them, yet we are perfectly comfortable with sexualising children in advertising and media. (Ironically paedophiles have a recidivism rate of only 2% whereas rapists such as Fritzel, a rate of 50%)
That we are at all surprised that there are loads of men (and women) who are needy and dependent, socially incompetent, emotionally abusive, and just generally hopeless and destructive and unhappy and lost- when apparently the only way you can be happy is in one of those relationships that tick all the boxes in a quiz; where when your partner "acts up" you should punish them- by withholding sex, shouting at them, humiliating them, ignoring them, whatever because the bitch/bastard deserves it; where if you are not having mind-blowing sex ten times a day then you are inadequate physically, emotionally, personally; where if you do not get over your ex in 2 seconds you are a failure; where devotedness is measured in the percentage of the day you spend with someone and loyalty is measured by how exclusively they spend time with you.
In the perfect relationship your partner is so devoted and loyal to you that they would even spend their life in a basement with no contact with anyone else and never leave you. They fulfill all of your sexual urges and desires- even the really dirty ones they never show on TV. Where they comply to your every wish and if they do not you are free to punish them any way you wish. They do everything you want them to do, down to bearing your children.
What a perfect family!
---
We all know persons who walk all over everyone to get to the top. We know morbidly jealous people. We know people so dependent that they harm themselves to keep their partners. We all know rapists and abusers. We all know paedophiles. And perhaps we even know someone who is or will become a murderer, too.
We are all somewhere on that spectrum, usually on the normal end, but where we fall is up to us. We are capable of immense goodness and indeed of change.
We have daily displays of incredible courage and humanity. Compassion and generosity and love so great that it is almost worthy of immortalisation.
Natascha Kampusch, the other Austrian girl who escaped from the captor who kidnapped her and held her in a basement for 8 years, has donated €25,000 to help the victims of Herr Fritzl and has spoken publicly of her ordeal and her deep sympathy for Elisabeth Fritzl and her children in order to raise awareness of their plight and to promote fundraising to help these spectacularly unfortunate people.
This itself- a deeply personal, selfless act of courage is an example of the good there is to counter the bad.
Also the national outpouring of grief in Austria for what had happened under their country, their state, their city, their neighbourhood. These are profoundly good things.
Yours,
Deutschy, connecting Austria, Europe and the World; bringing People together.
Deutsche Bahn: Sydneyside.
29th April 2008 1:13pm
Dear All,
In response to my post below- no, I am not usually that angry with my parents nor is our relationship usually full on and stupid as suggested. :)
I have been having a much needed and wanted time here. I never realised how much I missed my parents until I came back. "You can come back here anytime you want," my mother said. And so I did.
I told my parents about the anxiety problems and the Efexor when I got back. And about the money situation, and just about everything else. And to my surprise they were good about it all. Of everyone they have been the most supportive (obviously). They have listened and talked back to me and we have gotten closer than we have been in years.
It is also nice to have a room of my own again. To have the space to just lounge around, sleep, read, hang out on my own. And it is good to be living with people again- even if it is my family :).
I spend my time reading, writing, thinking, the usual. Going for walks with my folks, talking about ideas, love, life. Watching SBS world news, "The Bill", "East of Everything", "At the Movies"... whatever I can get my hands on- with them too. And this time is as if I were on a caravel sailing across a gentle Pacific ocean, only some fluffy Cumulus above me, a guest sailing on a great ship.
I do not know when the next chance will be for me to spend this amount of time with them. But I will make it.
It is starting to come to my attention (and through talking with my parents) that a lot of what I believe is stuff that you only gain through life experience, watching, learning, living. My parents have a perspective that I so desperately crave- that of having seen and experienced so much.
My parents are both from tiny rural villages in Sri Lanka, moved to the big city for school, lived on campus for University, worked a bit and... got married, my mother at 26 (then a doctor in a rural town), my dad at 31 (an electrical engineer). A couple of months later they left for Zambia where my dad had a job as an Electrical Engineer in a mine and my mother worked as a paediatrics resident. 4 years later my dad got a job in Hong Kong- and evidently they were very happy there because I was conceived not that long after they moved and my brother only 14 months after that! Hong Kong was a prosperous time- but my mother struggled with not being able to practice clinical medicine and instead did her Masters in pathology and the first part of her path training. We were expats though so we went off to New Zealand when the handover drew near. New Zealand was very hard on all of us- my father in and out of work and very stressed, my mother doing a job very well beneath her as once again she could not get her registration and my brother and I with our own problems. In the end I applied to ten million medical faculties in Australia and New Zealand- only getting a place in the most prestigious one (University of Melbourne) and so I was off over there. My dad got his dream job not long afterwards in Sydney and so my family moved. My mother got her registration, my brother finished high school. The last two years my mother spent in very rural NSW training as a GP (having finally gotten her registration!), one year of which my father was also doing a massive waste-water project in rural VIC - so they only saw each other about 5 times that year, coming home on alternating weekends to make sure my brother was ok.
So you can imagine that they have been there, done that, struggled, survived. Our house here is beautiful, my parents are in the jobs they always wanted, my brother is... getting there, and I too am... getting there.
The great thing is that with experience my parents are not bitter or cynical; they are practical, pragmatic, hopeful, optimistic and stand strongly for their beliefs- I think this is true realism.
And it is delightful being here.
I do not want to leave.
With Love
Yours,
Deutschebahn.
Snipergirl: Good Original Joke of the Month
22nd April 2008 10:13am
Macaulay Culkin starred in 3 "Home Alone" movies:
- Home Alone (major hit)
- Home Alone 2 (derivative sequel)
- Home Alone with Michael Jackson (curtailed in pre-production post casting; neither acted out nor made it to the big screen)"
Courtesy of KermitTheFrog
News: New Forum! RSS feeds fixed! World peace!
21st April 2008 3:05am
Look, I'm giving something different a try. Lefora seems to be doing something that is a little bit more innovative and in line with what I'd like to achieve in the long run with Inksad/Dbahn. Clearly the last forum died, as did the forum before that, so from now on, the forum tab links to the NEW FORUM.
Also I've finally gotten around to fixing up a few really dodgy things in the minor RSS feeds. Only Snipergirl's RSS should be called The Adventures of Snipergirl now. Thank god. Just imagine if it was ALL the adventures of snipergirl! Plus we have a "site news" feed for all the people who are really really really boring. Like me.
-xSniper-
