The Brains of Violent Males

The Brains of Violent Males

"It becomes increasingly evident that some of the destruction which curses the earth is self-destruction; the extraordinary propensity of the human being to join hands with external forces in an attack upon his own existence is one of the most remarkable of biological phenomena." -Karl Menninger (1).

Violence is everywhere in our society- in movies, television programs, video games, and professional sports such as boxing and wrestling. In 2000, 28,663 deaths were related to firearms. 58% were reported as suicides and 39% were reported as homicides (2). The objective of this paper is to qualitatively evaluate and compare the brains of male murderers and male suicide victims. Even though more females attempt suicide, males are used for comparison because males are four times more likely to die from a suicide attempt (3). Male suicidal individuals have a higher success rate because they are more likely to kill themselves in a violent manner (i.e. using a gun).

At first glance, most people would argue that homicide and suicide are opposite behaviors, yet the relationship may not be that straightforward. If it is assumed that the brain dictates behavior and that suicide and homicide are independent behaviors, one would expect that researchers would find differences between the brains of suicide victims and murderers. At the other extreme, suicide and homicide can be considered similar behaviors because in both cases an individual engages in killing someone, the only thing that differs is where the killing impulse is directed. Homicide is directed towards the external world, whereas suicide is aggression turned inward. When the cause of unhappiness can be attributed to an external s...

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...robiology of suicide.

http://www.afsp.org/research/articles/Mann/mann1.htm

8) Decision-making processes following damage to the prefrontal cortex, Article from Brain (2002).

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/125/3/624.pdf

9) "What's different about a Killer's Brain?" Whitley Strieber's web page

http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=2085

10) Why? The neuroscience of suicide: Physical clues to suicide , Scientific American article.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000D8D31-6937-1E1B-8B3B809EC588EEDF

11) Paxil & murder/ suicide. A story about how the maker of Paxil held liable in murder/suicide.

http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/ssri/Paxil_murder.htm

12) The mind of a killer. ABC news web page which contains pictures of normal brain and a murderer's brain

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/killer_brain021023.html