Shame and violence in ‘Starred Up’

Shame plays a powerful role in triggering violence, sometimes with fatal consequences. It is fundamentally important to understand and treat the roots of this aggression and its links to an internal sense of shame. In this paper, I will discuss the contribution of forensic psychotherapy to this project and link it to the excellent depiction of violence, shame and the development of insight and impulse control through psychotherapeutic work in the powerful film, ‘Starred Up’, written by Jonathan Asser and directed by David Mackenzie. At the 2015 Birkbeck summer conference, I was asked to speak to the themes of the film and relate them to my work with violent male offenders and their psychotherapeutic treatment. As a clinical and forensic psychologist and forensic psychotherapist, I have been heavily involved in assessing and treating men and women with violent histories in prisons, mental health services and community settings over the past 25 years. I see the film through the lens of forensic psychotherapy, filtered by my own clinical encounters. I discuss its main themes in relation to the challenges and possibilities of the therapists who work with men with entrenched violence and the underlying issues at stake for the men themselves.     

Batterer men in prison and in court-referred treatment programmes: what is the difference?

This paper describes the demographic, gender violence and psychopathological characteristics of 399 men in a specialized treatment programme for gender violence. Furthermore, a comparison of all the variables studied among the subjects referred by the court to the treatment programme (n = 276) and those who were imprisoned (n = 123) was conducted. The results showed the existence of numerous statistically significant differences between groups, primarily in psychopathological variables and in cognitive bias about women and violence use. In general, imprisoned batterers showed more irrational beliefs both about women and about violence as a strategy to cope with everyday difficulties. Moreover, batterers in prison had significantly higher scores on all psychopathological symptoms as assessed by SCL-90-R, as well as in most of STAXI-2 subscales. According to these results, batterers in prison showed a higher severity in variables studied than those who were referred by the court to the treatment programme. Implications of these results for further research and clinical practice are also commented on.     

Management style and its effect on prison officers’ stress

This study investigates the impact of the work environment on the level of perceived job stress in prison officers. Two models of prison administration were assessed in an attempt to identify the organizational structures and processes which were related to level of occupational stress. To identify the impact of occupational stress on prison officers, the bureaucratic and unit management models of prison administration are compared with respect to officer job characteristics and management processes. The Occupational Role Questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were administered to 112 prison officers. A multivariate analysis identified a significant main effect for prison management type. On all measures, prison officers from the bureaucratic management model (Pentridge Prison) scored higher than officers from a unit management model (Barwon Prison). Role boundary, physical environment, and trait anxiety were the most salient discriminators between officers from Pentridge and Barwon. Private Practice.     

Does change in perceptions of peer teen dating violence predict change in teen dating violence perpetration over time?

Research has previously demonstrated that perceptions of peer's teen dating violence (TDV) is associated with one's own perpetration of TDV, although little research has examined whether this relationship is consistent across developmental time periods (i.e., mid‐to‐late adolescence). The present study examined whether changes in perceptions of peer's TDV predicted change in one's own perpetration of TDV in a sample of ethnically diverse adolescents from ages 15 to 18 (N = 1,042). Parallel process modeling demonstrated that decreases in perceptions of peer's TDV predicted decreases in TDV perpetration over time, and this relationship was more pronounced for males than females. These findings lend further support to the need for TDV prevention and intervention programs to include peer influence in their programs.

     

Who's really in charge of my life,anyway? Locus of control and cognitive substance abuse treatment in a Federal prison

External locus of control has been identified as problematic among prison inmates across a number of dimensions, related both directly to substance abuse as well as to more general adjustment. Graduates of a nine month residential, cognitive substance abuse treatment program, housed within a Federal prison, were compared with a waiting-list control group for changes in locus of control. Both global locus of control, as measured by the Rotter Internal-External Scale (RIE) and vocational locus of control, as measured by the Spector Work Locus of Control Scale (WLCS) were examined. Treatment groups displayed significantly more internal loci or control across the two dimensions. Results are discussed in terms of prior findings of benefits of more internal locus of control related to aspects of personal and vocational adjustment, interpersonal violence, recidivism, and reductions in depression and suicidality, as well as substance abuse and relapse. This article is based on research initially presented August 14, 1994 at the 102nd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California.     

Police officers’ judgements of blame in family violence: The impact of gender and alcohol

This study investigated police officers‘ judgements of blame to both victims and assailants of family violence. Furthermore, the impact of these judgements on the reported likelihood of charging the assailants with assault was examined. The sample was selected from operational police officers of the Queensland Police Service. The sample included 51 male officers and 46 female officers. Ethnicity was not examined. However; 1.3% of police oficers identify as Indigenous and 5.8% of officers come from non-English speaking backgrounds. The subjects were presented with one of eight case vignettes of assault. In these vignettes two factors were varied, the victim gender (male and female), and alcohol consumption of the victim and assailant (both the assailant and the victim were drunk, neither were drunk, the assailant was sober and the victim drunk, and the assailant was drunk and the victim sober). A third independent variable was included, gender of the police officer Male and female police officers showed no differences in judgement of blame and reported likelihood of charging. However; the level of blame attributed to both the assailant and the victim vaned with the victim gender and the alcohol consumption of the disputants. Male victims were more likely to be blamed than female victims. Drunk victims were blamed more than sober victims. Furthermore,a relationship was found between the level of blame allocated to the victim and the reported likelihood of charging the assailant. These results indicate that police officers hold gender stereotypes that influence the way they respond to family violence.     

How does the legal framework protect victims of dowry and domestic violence in India? A critical review

This paper critically reviews the performance of two legal measures to curb violence, abuse, and exploitation of women particularly within the domestic space in India. In a time when we are increasingly arguing for women empowerment to augment the forces of social and alternative development, there is tremendous rise even in the officially claimed number of all types of crimes committed against women in general and particularly against wives in matrimonial homes. The Indian state has, however, enacted several laws during the last 60 years to address issues related to gender violence in a society dominated by patriarchal values and practices. But the legal framework, although important, appears to be grossly inadequate even today. A review of two relevant laws proves that mere passing of laws has failed to guarantee any reduction in the number of violence against women and girl child. They also do not provide assurance for improvement in justice delivery system in the Indian context. Much remains to be done to ensure gender justice and equality in a patriarchal society. Discussion here is based on government statistics, newspaper reports and field data collected from different locations in West Bengal during 2005–2010.     

“Sometimes cathartic. Sometimes quite raw”: Benefit and harm in an intimate partner violence trial

Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) has increased over the past two decades, however empirical research on potential harm to participants is limited. The aim of this study was to assess whether 272 women involved in a general practice based IPV intervention trial (weave) reported more benefit or harm, whether this differed by intervention or comparison group, and what types of benefit and harm were reported. Feedback was obtained via adapted Consequences of Screening Tool, visual analogue scale and open-ended question in baseline, 6-month, 12-month and 24-month surveys (all participants), and semi-structured interviews (subset of 28 participants). Participants in both the intervention and comparison groups tended to respond positively on all quantitative items, although on a number of items, the intervention group responded even more positively. At 6 and 12 months, 51.1% and 54.7% of all participants, respectively, reported their quality of life as becoming better and over 40% of women at each time-point, indicated they felt more positive about themselves as a result of some aspect of their involvement in weave. 42% of all participants reported their home lives becoming less difficult. In qualitative analyses, positive themes identified were altruism, value, evaluation of relationship, validation, self-awareness, empowerment, positive reinforcement, catharsis, motivation to seek help, and response to the research process. Negative themes identified were short-term emotional reactions, long-term emotional reactions, recall, retraumatization and minimization. Many participants indicated short-term negative emotions had been balanced by longer-term positive benefits. Further research is needed regarding characteristics and experiences of the small minority of participants who did not report positive benefit.     

Self-reported reflective functioning and father–child interactions in a sample of fathers who have used intimate partner violence

Reflective functioning (RF) has been found to be associated with mother–child interactions, but less is known about the association of fathers’ self and child-focused RF and father–child relationships.  Fathers who have histories of intimate partner violence (IPV) are known to have poor RF, which may impact their father–child interactions.  The current study was designed to examine how types of RF are associated with father–child relationships.  Pretreatment assessments and recorded, coded father–child play interactions were used to examine associations among fathers’ history of adverse childhood experiences (ACES), RF and coded father-child play interactions in a sample of 47 fathers with a history of IPV use in the last 6 months with their coparent.  Fathers’ ACES and their child's mental states (CM) were associated with father-child dyadic play interactions.  Fathers with greater ACES and higher scores on CM had the most dyadic tension and constriction during play interactions.  Those with high ACES but low CM had scores similar to those with low ACES and low CM.  These results indicate that fathers who have used IPV and have a history of significant adversity may benefit from interventions to increase their child-focused RF and further improve their interactions with their children.     

The ‘trials’ of Arjuna and Socrates: Physical bodies,violence and sexuality

In the Indian philosophical tradition Arjuna stands out as a major representative of an important ethical and intellectual position, as Socrates stands out in the West. While the cultural contexts of the views of Arjuna and Socrates differ significantly, their views on the axiological status of the physical body have much in common. As an exercise in comparative thought in the area of “the philosophy of the body”, much can be gained through a comparison of the corpological views of these two venerable characters as they are depicted in circumstances that ctystalise their teachings, i.e. in their ‘trials’: Arjuna as he stands before Krsna just prior to the great battle narrated in the Mahābhārata and Socrates as he sits with his beloved friend Crito just prior to his day of execution.     

Delusional disorder and delusions: is there a risk of violence in social interactions about the core symptom?

Delusional disorders are rare, but psychoses with prominent and persistent delusions are less so. A small but significant association between psychosis and violence is often mediated by delusions in such illnesses. Traditionally, delusions have been viewed as “incorrigible”, but there is evidence that they change over time. During development of a scale for measuring delusions, it was found that people who acted violently on their “most important” delusion were more likely to have modified that belief after a mild form of challenge to it. When cognitive–behaviour therapy (CBT) is used for schizophrenia, attempts to modify psychotic symptoms are generally included. Could studies of CBT provide further information about possible risks of social interactions about delusions? In the UK, 2000 people with schizophrenia have been in randomized controlled trials of CBT with a goal of symptom modification. These studies were examined for evidence of violence during the treatment. There was none. Given the period prevalence of violence among people with psychosis, this is surprising. In these studies, however, both challenge to delusions and change in them was minimal and in the context of a safe clinical relationship. Challenge to delusions may, however, occur in a variety of social situations. There are no systematic data on lay challenge to them, but it seems likely that some in the sufferer's social circle will do so vigorously. Relatives, friends, and acquaintances are the people most vulnerable to the most serious violence by someone with psychosis. Study of how people interact in these circumstances and whether their interactions are relevant to modification of delusions would be worthwhile. Could those close to a sufferer learn skills for responding to such pathological beliefs that could be protective against violence, perhaps derived from the principles of CBT?. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does war beget child aggression? Military violence,gender, age and aggressive behavior in two Palestinian samples

We examined, first, the relations between children's exposure to military violence and their aggressive behavior and the role of age and gender in that relation in two Palestinian samples. Second, we tested parenting practices as a moderator of the relation between exposure to military violence and aggressive behavior, and third, whether exposure to military violence of different nature (direct victimization versus witnessing) has specific associations with different forms of aggression (reactive, proactive and aggression-enjoyment). Study I was conducted in a relatively calm military-political atmosphere in Palestine-Gaza, and included 640 children, aged 6-16 years whose parents (N=622) and teachers (N=457) provided reports. Older children (> or =12 years) provided self-reports (N=211). Study II included 225 Palestinian children aged 10-14-year, who participated during a high-violence period of the Al Aqsa Intifada characterized by air raids, killing and destruction. Results showed that witnessing severe military violence was associated with children's aggressive and antisocial behavior (parent-reported) in study I, and with proactive, reactive and aggression-enjoyment (child-reported) in the study II. As hypothesized, good and supporting parenting practices could moderate the link between exposure to military violence and aggressive behavior. Aggr.     

Does violence beget violence? A critical examination of the literature

Critically examines the "violence breeds violence" hypothesis broadly defined. Organized into seven sections, the literature review includes (a) the abuse breeds abuse hypothesis; (b) reports of small numbers of violent/homicidal offenders; (c) studies examining the relationship of abuse and neglect to delinquency, (d) to violent behavior, and (e) to aggressive behavior in infants and young children; (f) abuse, withdrawal, and self-destructive behavior; and (g) studies of the impact of witnessing or observing violent behavior. A detailed discussion of methodological considerations and shortcomings precedes the review. The author concludes that existing knowledge of the long-term consequences of abusive home environments is limited and suggests that conclusions about the strength of the cycle of violence be tempered by the dearth of convincing empirical evidence. Recommendations are made for further research.     

A systematic review of the relationship between impulsivity and violence in persons with psychosis: Evidence or spin cycle?

Individual differences in impulsive traits have been associated with a number of deviant behaviors, and impulsivity has been assumed to play a critical role in the manifestation of violent and other criminal behavior. Despite frequent citations of a positive association between impulsivity and violence in persons with psychosis, conflicting findings in the research literature elicited this systematic review. The main aims were to examine the empirical evidence of the association and to determine whether the research design and measurement used were sufficient for testing a possible causal relationship. Two types of empirical evidence were searched for in keeping with the traditional trait-state dichotomy: documentation of the direct impact of impulsivity on carrying out the violent act (state), and documentation of elevated levels of impulsivity in a person and increased occurrence of violent acts (trait). Searches that were conducted in six databases resulted in one study that supported the association and three that did not. Only 2 out of 22 estimates obtained from bivariate analysis indicated evidence of an impulsivity–violence link. No single study had a design that yielded data on a direct impact of impulsivity on carrying out the violent act (i.e., the state aspect of the association).     

Community violence exposure and callous–unemotional traits in adolescents: Testing parental support as a promotive versus protective factor

Although callous–unemotional (CU) traits are associated with maladjustment in youth, literature predicting CU using prospective designs is rare. In the present study we examine associations between exposure to community violence, supportive relationships with caregivers, and CU in a sample of 236 low-income youth (M age = 13.00 years, SD = 1.56 years; 43% male; 92% African American) participating in a 3-wave longitudinal study of violence exposure and adjustment. Both promotive and protective models of linkages between exposure to community violence, support, and CU were investigated. Given known sex differences in CU, sex was explored as a moderator. Regression analysis revealed that witnessing and hearing about community violence, aggregated over 2 waves, were positively associated with CU at the final study wave. Supportive relationships with caregivers, aggregated over 2 waves, were negatively associated with CU but did not interact with violence exposure, suggesting that supportive relationships with caregivers has a promotive but not a protective association with CU in the context of exposure to violence. The pattern of associations did not vary by sex. This study informs our understanding of factors that contribute to the development of CU.     

Marx and God with anarchism: on Walter Benjamin’s concepts of history and violence

The article analyses relationships between profane and religious illumination, materialism and theology, politics and religion, Marxism and Messianism. For Walter Benjamin, every second is “the small gateway in time through which the Messiah might enter”. This is the starting point in the reading of Benjamin’s works, where we confront various liaisons and couplings of radical politics and messianic events. Through the reading of Benjamin and through the analysis of his conceptions of history and time, the article addresses the question what is possible in the world.     

Clinical notes: Masking devices and The Edinburgh Masker—Clinical applications within a prison setting

This paper outlines portions of the writer's therapeutics in the field of stuttering with emphasis upon use of masking the hearing of stutterers as a part of a total therapeutic approach. Commencing with devices providing continuous noise to override the voice of the stutterer so that he cannot hear himself and, thus, eliciting fluency. Described is the use of the voice actuated Edinburgh Auditory Masker within an intensive stuttering program in a prison setting since September 1978. It is concluded that the use of masking and the Edinburgh device has been helpful and productive with severe stutterers.     

Can psychoanalysis help us to understand the causes and prevention of violence?

As the most adequate theory of human personality yet created, including our propensity for irrational, self-defeating, and self-destructive behavior patterns, psychoanalysis is in a unique position to help us solve the most serious crisis that the human species has been confronted by at any point in its evolutionary history: the threat to its own survival that is caused by its own behavior, namely the compulsion to engage in violence on the largest scale that its technology makes possible, even when that causes the death of the self as well as of others. This continually expanding behavior pattern, which reduces even genocide to a minor footnote compared with the self-extinction of our whole species, is created not only by “apocalyptic” fundamentalism and terrorism (“suicide bombers”), but also by the increasing and only partially preventable proliferation of thermonuclear weapons to national rulers of questionable sanity, and the apparently unpreventable continuation of industrial/economic policies and practices that will, if not reversed, make our own small planet uninhabitable. What makes people place a higher value on the continuation of these behaviors than they place on their own physical survival (or that of their children)? That is the question to which this article proposes at least the beginnings of an answer: that when a person feels shamed and humiliated to a degree that threatens the survival of that fragile and vulnerable psychological construct called his “self” (or of the religious or cultural group with which his self has identified), he will eagerly sacrifice his body (and other peoples’) in the attempt to, as he sees it, save his soul, i.e. his self and his self-esteem. The question then becomes: what are the social and psychological determinants of overwhelming shame and humiliation, and how can we protect people from being exposed to those conditions, or at least enhance their ability to respond to them in ways that are life-preserving rather than life-destroying?     

Fatal violence – from trauma to offence: A case study in forensic psychotherapy and trauma therapy with a migrant patient

Abstract

That persons who are objects of violence and traumatisation become offenders themselves is a typical feature of ill-fated cycles of violence in countries torn by fierce political, ethnic, and religious conflicts. Some refugees and migrants with this background present a challenge to forensic psychotherapy when they continue such patterns of physical force and criminal behaviour in a host country like Germany, and are found to be either not responsible or of diminished responsibility for their criminal acts by reason of mental disorders or addictions. Their offences create a critical legal situation for them, since they are threatened with deportation. At the same time, their clinical condition is critical, for they were possibly subjected to traumatic experiences by authorities in their past; their cooperation in the treatment can seriously affect their legal status. Finding a way out of these complications has to take these special factors into account. Our paper focuses on the case study of a refugee from North Africa, illustrating a model of cooperation in forensic inpatient treatment, special trauma therapy (narrative exposure therapy), and expert testimony.