Taking a case study approach to exploring the psychology of extreme violence

Abstract

[...]in the case of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, Adam Lanza, there were multiple pathways which culminated in the eventual attack including: loss of school, absence of work, disruption of the relationship with his one friend, virtually no personal contact with family, virtually total and increasing social isolation, fear of losing his home and of a change in his relationship with his mother who was his only caretaker and connection, worsening psychiatric mental health (obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and anxiety), profound and potentially worsening anorexia and an increasing preoccupation with mass murder occurring in the absence of any interaction with the outside world (Office of the Child Advocate, 2014). Criminologist Lankford (2018) from the University of Alabama has developed checklists of warning signs that can be used by law enforcement to help them determine whether an at-risk individual appears to have: suicidal motives or life indifference that might eliminate fear of consequences, perceptions of his or her own victimisation that might rationalise attacks against targets and desires to obtain fame or attention through killing. By adopting a case study approach, we are able to gain a rich and extremely detailed (and sometimes personal) insight into the pathway to violence in each of the offenders explored in this book with the aim of increasing our understanding of what were the specific motivations and psychological factors underlying their extreme acts of violence.