Videos in Criminal Behavior.

Aging: Death and Dying. Keep your mind young with Sudoku. How to solve sudoku -- easy rules.

Criminal Behavior: Criminal Behavior lectures. Criminal Behavior videos. Criminal Behavior readings. Criminal Justice Glossary. Criminal Investigation.

Political science: Introduction to Political Science. Political Science Glossary.

Psychology: Biopsychology. Cognitive Psychology. The Enneagram and Psychology Evolutionary Psychology. Personality Psychology Psychological research methods. Psychology books: Nature of Prejudice by Gordon W. Allport. Learned Optimism by Martin E. P. Seligman. Pessimism (defensive) (Norem).

Related: Ecology. Evolution.

Disclaimer Links. Books read recently. Best books read. Harry Potter books.

Note: this site is not giving legal advice, simply organizing information from various classes and texts. If you need legal advice consult your lawyer.

Text book: Criminal Investigation (7th Edition) by Wayne W. Bennett. Also see: notes on The Body in Question. Contents of Criminal Investigation: Criminal Investigation: An Overview. Documenting the Scene: Note Taking, Photography and Sketching. Searches. Forensics/Physical Evidence. Obtaining Information. Identifying and Arresting Suspects. Death Investigations. Assault, Domestic Violence, Stalking and Elder Abuse. Sex Offenses. Crimes against Children. Robbery. Burglary. Larceny/Theft, Fraud, White Collar Crime and Environmental Crime. Motor Vehicle Theft. Arson. Computer Crime. Organized Crime, Bias/Hate Crime and Ritualistic Crime. Gang Related Crime. Illegal Drugs and Terrorism. Writing the Reports, Preparing for and Presenting Cases in Court.

Videos in Criminal Behavior

• Criminal behavior course taken at Cabrillo College, Spring, 2006.

• Assigned Videos from criminal behavior course (Cabrillo College, Spring, 2006).

• Assigned Readings from criminal behavior course (Cabrillo College, Spring, 2006).
• Assigned Readings from
• Volume #1: Section (1) on Home Environment
• Volume #1: Section (2) on Child Abuse
• Volume #2: Section (1) on Learning Disabilities
• Volume #2: Section (2) on Fatherhood and Parenting
• Volume #2: Section (3) on Genetics

Assigned Videos

Ed Kemper, 'charming' serial killer & psychopath (Feb 9^th)

• "A very likeable mass murderer" (said by a legal prosecutor):
• Cowardly and not a bully as a child. Beheaded and mutilated family cat.
• As a teenage, killed both his grandparents. In Atascadero State Hospital (7 years, age 15-22) for intensive therapy ("you can't try someone who is psychotic").
• Given outpatient therapy. Psychiatrists judged him no longer a risk while he was on his series of murders.
• 6 ft 8" tall.
• Killed six girl hitchhikers he picked up singly and in pairs (Berkeley to Aptos). Knifed the first two. Smothered the third. Shot the last three. Planned murders.
• Killed his mother (hammer and knife). Had screaming arguments with her.
• Invited his mother's friend to dinner and killed her.
• Wore the same outfit for all murders as for killing first girls.
• Sexually assaulted bodies, including through the wounds. Dissected bodies in his own or his mother's bathtub. Ate some of body parts.
• Blamed others for not stopping him.
• Finally turned himself in to police.

"Career Criminals" in support of Classical School (Feb 16^th)

• Classical school of Cesare Beccaria.
• 1800 career criminals in Dade County. 5700 career criminals in NYC.
• Example: NYC thief, given $2000 bail; killed his brother-in-law while out on bail.
• Example: Albuquerque burglar who repeatedly cased houses that he might rob, in company with an under-cover cop.
• Augustine (NYC kid) broke into half a dozen cars; says "it's hard to stay out of trouble because trouble comes to me". Angel Rodriguez (Director of Andrew Glover Youth Program) works with such kids. Believes "nobody is born bad"; tells Augustine (who says he will commit no more crimes) "I want to believe me but you are going to have to show me." "I don't know how people can force you to do something you do not believe you should be doing." "I don't give up on Augustine."
• [Scott comments that a 10% success rate of changing kids is a great success rate.]
• Walter Shaw, a psychopath and jewelry burglar; estimated he burgled 2000 homes and took $70 million retail-value jewelry (and a few mink coats) over his career. Got out of jail 1986. Went back to burglary. Turned states evidence; cops have him on tape confessing to crimes he committed in first three years after his release. He insists publicly that he has not burgled since his release.
• Wayne: convicted of abduction and (attempted?) rape; interviewed by Stanton Samenow, who prompts Wayne into saying that he did it "for the excitement." Samenow believes: "crime is a series of choices so make a choice in the opposite direction."

Video (BBC) "In the Genes" in support of Positive School (Feb 21^st)

• Steven Jones, Prof Genetics @ University College, London.
• Interviews an English prisoner who says "a part of me wanted to know how it felt to have power over another ... I just get a sadistic pleasure out of killing people and causing pain".
• Jeremy Benthem advocates prisoners under continuous survey & vigilance to "grind the bad out of them" so "they could become honest men".
• John McVicar: "I chose crime in the circumstances I grew up in" and "If they did find a gene for crime, it could only be used as an excuse if it could be shown to override free will."
• Study in Camberwell of 400 8-year-olds predicted who would be in trouble with law later: came from very poor homes, fathers had been in prison.
• Han Brunner (Dutch geneticist) studied family with violence in males but not females; passed on x-chromosome; affects MAOA control (linked with nerve impulses in brain and "uncontrollable" attacks of rage).
• Steven Mowby, USA killer, said to have "disturbed regulation of impulse control" and "never know[s], when he walks in to a room, what he's going to do.
• Some USA judges see the presentation of genetic evidence as being aggravating (pro-prosecution) not mitigating (pro-defense). Mowby's family denied request for gene test that would "sully reputation".
• John Baker, lawyer drinking and drugging. Stole money from a client's trust account. His lawyer defended him successfully with the 1^st ever use of a genetic defense, blaming his alcoholism on his Native American genetic problem with alcohol.
• Study of Bryan Bakhtiari and other kids with "operational defiance" and impulsivity "in order to attract attention". A chemical patch helped his behavior until his peers teased him enough that he stopped using it, leading to 7 robberies.
• Presence of aggressive behavior as a child is the best predictor of adult aggressive behavior.
• David Comings, Dir of Center for Behavioral Disorders, City of Hope, LA: "50% of all the genes we have are active only in the brain." Also pres of American Society of Human Genetics.

Video "Last Resort" about tough love and behavior modification schools for delinquents (March 9^th)

• Tough-love camps and schools. Video shows many successes, some concerns.
• Transporters are hired by a parent to take the child to a camp for behavior modification through "a grueling regimen far removed from a child's haunts and habits," often after the child's overuse of illegal drugs and/or fleeing home.

• 300 American boys in "Paradise Cove" (Samoa):
  1. Students wash in cold water: themselves, their clothes & bedclothes by hand.
  2. Rigid daily schedule of chores, exercise, education videos.
  3. No American-certified teachers or licensed therapists.
  4. "Solid habits" created where the kids have to ask before they do things (e.g. go to bathroom).
  5. Inexpensive food and accommodation.
  6. Many infections: scabies, ringworm, lice. Meds prescribed by a psychiatrist; visits every 6 weeks. Half of students are on Ritalin or antidepressants. "We have a history of sending kids home without/off medication."
  7. "Everything the program does breaks the kids into submission," said one kid.
  8. Law suits from some kids against the program for abuse of isolation, beatings.

• Umbrella organization of "Paradise Cove" is in St. George, UT:
  1. Has a thousand client kids in half a dozen schools (Montana, Jamaica, Czechoslovakia, etc., beside "Paradise Cove"). Many are offshore.
  2. Charges per kid ~ $30K-$42K/year. In Samoa the accommodation, food, and services are minimal. Where do the charges get spent?
  3. Kids are in program for minimum of 1 year and typically 13-22 months.
  4. "Emotional growth" (consciousness-raising) seminars are "cornerstone" of kids making change. Confrontive. Feedback oriented. [Sounds similar to Yochelson as described by Stanley Samenow in Inside the Criminal Mind. J.Z.]
  5. Parents attend similar "emotional growth" (consciousness-raising) while the kids are away.

• Objective: get kids to a place where they are ready to work with family.
• Challenge by neighbors (Sonomish county, WA) of whether the parents can send a kid (Paul) to "Paradise Cove." Judge dismissed their suit to make Paul a ward of the state: "no submissible facts that Paul is in danger."
• Parents of Kirsten (was "drinking a 12-pack per day") changed their mind at a parents' seminar, walked out of the seminar after 1 day, & "rescued" Kirsten from Tranquility Bay (Jamaica) without challenge. However, Kirsten said, "It [Tranquility Bay] worked for me, but I made it work for me."
• Glass [commentator] criticized the behavior modification as "one size fits all" and that it creates "incredible anger and resentment that may not come out for years."
• e.g. Eddie spent 2 years in behavior modification schools: Paradise Cove ("more like shock therapy") then Spring Creek Lodge (MT) ("more like fine tuning.") His father: "He was not under our control. He was under control of the drug dealers."
• No published statistics on the success of such programs or of comparisons with other approaches.

Video (NBC) "Failing to learn, learning to fail" about Learning Disabilities (March 23^rd)

• Relates disabilities to criminal behavior.
• Learning disabilities in 75%-90% of Colorado delinquents; 15% of general population. [Did not state if matched for IQ.]
• Most learning disabilities come from the brain being unable to interpret its inputs.
• Colorado. Knows differences between delinquency and disability.
• Billy Owen. Surly young man. Smokes a lot. Normal IQ, eyesight, hearing. But misinterprets what he sees and cannot read words on a page. Serving time for burglary. Fearless horse rider. Billy's father would vary in the degree of discipline [i.e. inconsistent?] he gave "but nothing works."
• Barbara Felez. 15-year-old reading at 2^nd grade level. Ran away when she could not cope. Chews gum a lot. In school felt confused, uptight, teased. Low self-opinion. Continual need for affection.
• Fred Lindsey. 8 year-old African American. Test case in Philadelphia that a learning-disabled child must get help no matter what his grade. Has visual disability (difficulty deciphering what he sees) and auditory (what he hears). Hit by a car: "almost every kid on this block has been hit [by a car] at least once." His father was an 8^th grade dropout who died in prison. "Fred is not a criminal [significant pause] yet.]
• Stevie. Caucasian with ADHD and drug therapy. Special school, 6 kids/class; began way behind and quickly caught up to his grade level. [We did not see this section. Presumably it means that greater individual attention is more helpful for kids with learning disabilities. But all kids flourish under such attention. If it's promoted for one group, it should be promoted for all IMHO.]

Video (Oprah Winfrey) "Scared Silent" about Child Abuse (March 30^th)

• 3 million cases of child abuse reported/year in USA.

• Most often, abuse if inflicted by close family member or friend.

• To report: 1-800-4-A-CHILD.

• 6 cases.
  1. Eva sexually abused by her father:
     • "Part of the grooming is to tell them that they can't tell anyone or they will break up the family."
     • Eva's mom was molested as a child and ignored cues that Eva was molested.
     • Eva: "If this was such a great family, why was I so sad? Why did I walk funny?"
     • Eva's sister also abused. As adults, Eva and her sister told their mom, who told her husband, "We know what you've done, damn you," and left with her daughters. Eva said "I can't believe she ever would come to her rescue like that."
     • Father got 1 year in jail. Had been sexually molested by a neighbor.
     • Eva confronted her father in a controlled environment at CARE. Father: "You were the first person in my life that I felt loved me. Before that I felt unlovable." Eva: "Now I feel unlovable."
     • "It's difficult to know how you can love someone so much and cause them so much damage."

  2. Tashee (?name) abused by family member. Involved force. African-American.
     • 60-80% adult sex offenders start molesting as children. 11 years is average age of 1^st offense.
     • She abused 7-year-old cousin. Got a kick out of power over her victims.
     • Very angry towards guys because of her horrendous treatment by them. Worst thing was being "fondled by objects": pencils, bottles, brooms.
     • "There was blood in my pants all the time ... blood on the floor."
     • "I got offended by my uncle. I got offended by my brother."
     • First you should "put yourself in your victim's shoes".
     • Being taught coping skills.

  3. Jill, Dave, siblings.
     • Every day 4 children die from abuse or neglect.
     • Father "raised us through fear", "like living in a concentration camp", "we got beatings" for the smallest of things.
     • Jill traced back 130 years of abuse over 5 generations based on oral records in the family.
     • Dave's daughter "gave up her child for adoption because she was afraid of battering him".
     • Feelings of rage, anger, humiliation, shame.
     • Jill: "I didn't know the difference between discipline and abuse. She beat sons with a curtain rod then threw it at them; hit her son Roger in the eye; he died in hospital 2:30 a.m.; police arrested Jill at 9:30 a.m. Convicted of 1^st degree manslaughter, overturned on appeal, even though she says "I killed my son."

  4. George (now a motivational speaker) was a perp and recipient of abuse.
     • Psychological or emotional abuse makes the child feel stupid. Put-downs, humiliations, criticisms with nothing positive to say.
     • "Each perp. on this program was also psychologically abused as a child."
     • >When he was 11 yrs old, his mother was still beaten by her mother.
     • What will you do instead? Know and talk to children as people not things.

  5. Wendy, sexually molested (when 8-10) by her father Brian.
     • Brian threatened Wendy that he would kill her if she told.
     • Brian's wife walked in on them. "I would not have stopped on my own."
     • Brian got a "short" jail sentence and separated from family on release.
     • Brian and his wife did not know each other's bgs on being molested.
     • Brian got counseling to recognize his pattern of warning signals that led up to abuse. Can include pornography, substance abuse, need to control, poor self-esteem.
     • Wendy: "I would like to say to my dad that he shouldn't have done it to me. He shouldn't have done it at all."

  6. Beatrice.
     • Lashed out in anger at daughter Roxanne, who was taken by child protective services to foster care.
     • If I don't get what I want, I hit the child. The child learns not to hit me because I hit harder. So the child hits other small kids.

• Final summing up by participants:
  • Take a good hard look at yourself.
  • Communicate with the family -- no secrets.
  • Point-blank ask a child "Are you being molested?"
  • Go get help if you are offending or being offended against.
  • Have reasonable expectations of kids' behavior.
  • Tell ANYBODY -- a parent. A neighbor. A teacher. A minister. A councilor. A relative. Talk to anyone who might listen until somebody listens to you.
  • "Every adult in this country needs to listen."

Video "Breaking the Silence" about Child Abuse (April 4^th). Notes based on those of Krystle Corkrean.

• Gina: began being abused at 9. By 13, 3 male relative. Told it would continue till 16.
• Caroline: incest survivor; child lawyer. Must relive the abuse and talk to begin healing process.
• Rage toward others.
• Therapy for offender.
• Repressed memories triggered by an act where victim feels safe.
• Partners of survivors need to education to help.

Books

Cognitive Psychology: In and Out of the Lab (2004) by Kathleen M. Galotti. Text for the college course in Cognitive Psychology. See notes on Galotti and our BLOG (web log) entry.

Check our disclaimer. Copyright © 2006-2008 by J. Zimmerman.

[Thanks for visiting.]