Why do children kill?

Serbia is still in shock after the mass murder at the "Vladislav Ribnikar" Elementary School in Vračar, whose perpetrator was only 13 years old, and we already have new incidents with a fatal outcome. Last week, the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Niš established that the boy AS from Niška Banja was killed by his schoolmate and peer MM. The perpetrator and the victim are both 13 years old. The VJT confirmed that the suspected minor is criminally irresponsible because he has not reached the age of 14, which is why the Niš Center for Social Work will be responsible for this case as the guardianship body: "The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Niš was informed that on October 5, 2023, approx. At 11 a.m., a lifeless body was found in a house in Niška Banja. he ordered the taking of all actions to collect evidence in order to shed light on the circumstances under which the event took place. After collecting all the relevant evidence, it was determined that AS was killed by MM", stated the Niš VJT.

The fight that resulted in the death of the thirteen-year-old took place on October 5. Just one day later, news appeared in the media that on October 2nd in Novi Sad, a thirteen-year-old girl also lured her friend to a dark part of the city where she attacked her with a knife. Fortunately, the attacked girl survived, and the whole case is difficult to understand because the parents of both girls say that they have been friends since birth and that they had an excellent relationship. Both pairs of parents described this attack to the media as something that came "out of the blue".

photo: cotonbro studio / pexels

Even though we are aware that this happens, it is quite expected that, as a society, we are concerned about the phenomenon of children who kill, and it is completely normal that this phenomenon is difficult for us to understand. After the events in Niška Banja and Novi Sad, a debate was started in the public about whether the media made a mistake in publishing the information that the perpetrator of multiple murders in "Ribnikar" KK (13) cannot be held criminally responsible. A part of the public wonders if the frequency of this type of violence among children is a consequence of knowing that they are not criminally responsible. However, expert in media ethics and journalist Tamara Skrozza tells "Vreme" that this is information that is extremely important and even exceeds the public interest: "Information about the age limit for criminal responsibility is of crucial importance for the public. In two years, someone will ask where that boy who killed ten people is. How exactly should we keep silent about what happened to him and with what explanation to hide the information about where he is", says Skrozza.

She adds that no one kills just because they know they will go unpunished. We can also add here that the argument of those who believe that this should not have been published does not hold water due to the fact that, although he will not be convicted, KK will not be free either. And that information is as often repeated in the media as the information that he cannot be tried for the crime he committed.

So, apart from the awareness of impunity, in order for a child to kill, there must be other factors.

THERE IS NO SINGLE ANSWER

Anne Magire was a Spanish teacher at a secondary school in Leeds, UK. She lost her life in April 2014 when a student attacked and killed her with seven stab wounds in the middle of class. The perpetrator, William Cornick, was 14 years old. England and Wales have the lowest age limit for the prosecution of minors - only 10 years. That limit has not always been so low: in 1993, two-year-old James Burgler was kidnapped and killed by two ten-year-old boys. Because Anglo-Saxon law recognizes precedent, the judge in this case ruled that the boys should be tried as adults, effectively establishing the practice of 10 years as the minimum age for criminal responsibility in England and Wales. At one time, it was valid in almost all of Great Britain, but in 2018, Scotland returned the lower limit to 14 years of age. The boys who killed the little Burgler were initially sentenced to eight years in prison, but a little later, under public pressure, the sentence was changed to 14 years in prison. However, after the reaction of the European Court of Human Rights and the pressure of human rights organizations, after countless appeals, they were released in 2001. Both got new identities, but one became a multiple returnee due to minor crimes, so it is known where he lives today, while nothing is known about the other. What came to light during the trial is that both boys come from very chaotic families, with parents who are drug addicts and alcoholics, and one of them was abandoned very early by his father, with whom he had no contact. Also, potentially psychopathic traits and manipulativeness were observed in only one of them.

But let's go back to William Cornick, who killed a Spanish teacher in 2014. His case extremely confused psychiatrists, because until then, at least those who worked with child killers, had a relatively defined profile of a child from a broken family, with problematic parents and certain antisocial or psychopathic traits. William Cornick did not fit this profile in any way: he was a well-adjusted child from a functional family, only slightly more withdrawn, but, according to the psychiatrists who evaluated him, no different from the average teenager. The only thing that went wrong was the fact that William talked a lot about his intention to kill the professor, but no one took him seriously. After the murder, he did not show remorse, he was not in a state of shock, on the contrary, he declared to the police that he was satisfied with himself.

Child psychiatry experts who later spoke in documentaries about the case agree on one thing: someone missed something or didn't want to see the early signs. "People often see signals, but they are afraid, they don't want to get involved or they don't know who to tell, and sometimes they expect someone else to do it for them," said psycho-forensic expert Keri Nixon in a documentary series.

WHAT CRIMINOLOGY SAYS

In her master's thesis entitled "Kid killers" (Niš, 2019), lawyer Aleksandra Mandić considers all the external and internal (psychological) factors that lead to the most extreme forms of children's behavior. She emphasizes the importance of socialization because in this process the child develops its own standards and criteria for different behaviors. The family, as the most important factor in the socialization of the child, has a great preventive role in preventing illegal behavior by children and represents the social force of proper upbringing and life guidance of the child.

Unfortunately, not all families function harmoniously and harmoniously. Aleksandra Mandić discusses two types of families that can have a negative impact on a child's socialization: incomplete and dysfunctional. The incompleteness of the family, where the cause is the death of one of the parents, has a much weaker negative effect on the child. But the abandonment of one parent, a complicated divorce or other reasons for absence and separation have incomparably more severe consequences for children. However, it should be emphasized that based on the conducted research, an incomplete family is certainly not a decisive factor in criminality.

"On the other hand, when we talk about a family where there are bad family relations, the so-called degraded family, in the criminological literature it is pointed out that bad disharmonious relations in the family can be a significant factor in the criminal behavior of young people. Asocial behavior most often arises as a result of family crises", writes A. Mandić. "That bad family atmosphere is expressed through the use of domestic violence. Special difficulties in the upbringing and socialization of children occur in the period of puberty. That phase of growing up is accompanied by a large number of arguments and misunderstandings between parents and children, because puberty is the age of the greatest desires, but most often the inability to realize those desires."

One of the leading American experts when it comes to perpetrators of bloodshed in schools, Peter Langman, author of the book Why do children kill? in the mind of a school killer, spoke in May for Television N1 and said that there is no single reason why children in the United States become serial killers, and that it is usually a combination of various influences. There are many factors that make someone violent. There are psychological factors, family, school or some other stress. Some of them have psychoses, which means they may be hallucinating. They have no interest in other people and may even enjoy killing and causing harm. When we talk about school shootings and crimes, we have to understand that there is no single factor, Langman explained.

According to him, the perpetrators can be divided into three basic groups: "The first of those three types is the psychopathic shooter. He is very narcissistic, has no compassion, conscience and morals. He simply wants to fulfill his own needs at the expense of other people. He's cold-blooded and probably a sadist. The second type is the psychotic school killer and there we have the mental illness factor. They suffer from schizophrenia, they hear voices telling them to kill someone... The third type are traumatized school killers, children who come from chronically and seriously dysfunctional families. Their parents are alcoholics or drug addicts," explained Langman.

According to his research, the most common perpetrators of school murders in the US are traumatized school killers.

Asked to answer how to recognize people who have no empathy or remorse, he answers: "Someone who is a psychopath has no empathy and this can be shown in different ways. They can be cruel to other people or animals. Also, they can be people who are prone to manipulation, fraud and concealment".

Speaking about preventing school shootings, Langman said it's about threat assessment. That is, there must be a team of people in the school who are trained in warning research. "For example, if a student or parent reports a sign that worries them, trained people at the school investigate it and assess whether it is a serious threat or a false alarm. Threat assessment is the best way to prevent an attack," concluded Langman.

ROLE OF PARENTS, INTELLIGENCE, ITD.

What actually happens in the psychology of children and what are the psychological factors that lead minors, and above all children, to commit criminal acts, and among them the most serious - murder?

Aleksandra Mandić writes that in the literature devoted to minors, it is emphasized that juvenile delinquency occurs as an expression of the mismatch between biological and psychological maturation. The gap between accelerated physical development and insufficient psychological maturation is characteristic of juvenile delinquents. Early physical maturation is not always accompanied by psychological maturation, which can lead to the commission of blood and other crimes. Spiritual development becomes richer over time. Children differ from adults in the degree of intellectual and emotional maturity and in the development of awareness and responsibility for their actions, and that is why children are less socially and morally responsible than adults.

Aleksandra Mandić considers it wrong to assume that all human characteristics are innate, given that these characteristics constantly change during life under the influence of the environment and the activities of the individual. Knowing the factors on which psychological development depends is very important for work on upbringing and education. The development of children's personality, i.e. their maturation and upbringing, is influenced by numerous factors.

A. Mandić is particularly concerned with intelligence as a factor and denies the long and widespread claim that children of killers are usually of lower intelligence:

"A high IQ can be a factor that influences minors to create various fantasies that the minor thinks he will achieve by murder. This view is supported by the fact that most serial murders were committed by children who showed a high level of intelligence, more precisely above average or average IQ. The same is the case when we talk about murders committed by organized criminal groups, juvenile gangs, where most members show an average or above average level of intelligence. On the contrary, in criminology there is still a widespread opinion that a low IQ influences a child to develop a delinquent lifestyle", writes Aleksandra Mandić.

Persons with lower intellectual capacities are more often accomplices and leave behind more traces when committing a murder.

Dr. Winston Chang is a respected psychoanalyst, known for coining the term "narcissistic rage." He studied mass murderers in schools (Columbine, Virginia Tech, Seattle). Chang points out what developmental psychologists have long known: narcissistic behavior is a perfectly normal part of maturation. This behavior is not a problem until the child is exposed to an unhealthy environment.

"For example, in children there is a biological predisposition to develop disorders such as severe depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or anxiety disorders, panic, post-traumatic stress, etc.," writes Chang. "But, in order for this predisposition to be realized, it is necessary for the child to be overly sensitive and to live in an environment that behaves in one of the following ways: excessive praise of the child, admiration and indulgence of all desires or, quite the opposite, excessive criticism of the parents and emotional abuse of a child. Then, other factors are an unreliable or unpredictable parent or guardian, and unreliable in the sense of providing the emotional security and physical safety of the child."

Chang states that parents have a key role in the process of healthy child development and therefore should be held responsible for the actions of the child. The role of the family, in his opinion, is very important in the development of children's behavior. Although, according to Chang, no one is born violent or a murderer, there is a common factor in all the cases he has studied: there is always some type of family dysfunction, and usually the children are raised in an unhealthy environment.

Carol Ann Davis, author of the book Children who kill, studied this phenomenon in depth through case studies involving child killers between the ages of 10 and 17. She interviewed dozens of experts in child and youth psychology, psychiatrists and lawyers. In her book, a consensus among psychiatrists on youth violence can be seen,

"All acts of violence committed by children or young people occur because the child's mind wants to exact some kind of justice or eliminate injustice. It follows from this that the violent acts committed by children are their attempt to stop being victims by becoming perpetrators," writes KE Davies.

She goes on to say that in many cases this feeling of suffering injustice comes from the family and close environment. Experts actually believe that upbringing and the environment in which a child grows up play a key role in why children kill. Genes play a role, but it is minimal. Furthermore, Carol Ann Davis goes so far as to claim that the biological background can be completely ignored in most cases, and that "the key to criminogenic behavior lies in the way a child is raised." Parents who are aggressive, hostile or ignore the violence the child suffers, do not react to the child's antisocial behavior, actually send the child a message that violence is acceptable and an effective way to solve problems.

And Carol Ann Davis, like Chang, concludes that parents and caregivers bear the ultimate and greatest responsibility for child abuse. This is especially true in cases where children at different developmental stages exhibit behavior that could be an early warning sign, but the parent chooses to ignore it or deal with it by being violent towards the child. All over the world, according to Davis, parents are responsible if children commit any act for which an adult would be tried. That's why Davis wonders why a different principle should apply to those parents who ignore early warnings such as disturbing drawings, a child's obsession with violence, animal torture... She especially emphasizes an even greater degree of responsibility for parents whose children commit violence or murder with weapons that they (parents ) acquired, bought or knew that the child had it, but did not react adequately.