Neil Websdale
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195315417
- eISBN:
- 9780199777464
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195315417.003.004
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families, Crime and Justice
Chapter 4 focuses on eight perpetrators of familicide (7 male, one female) drawn from 77 cases (76 being male perpetrators) exhibiting a prior history of domestic violence and varying degrees of ...
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Chapter 4 focuses on eight perpetrators of familicide (7 male, one female) drawn from 77 cases (76 being male perpetrators) exhibiting a prior history of domestic violence and varying degrees of livid coercion. The author examines the early socialization of offenders, perpetrators’ searches for intimacy, including the lure of romance, and the parts played by aggressive and hostile, livid coercive behavior, sexual jealousy and obsessive attempts to control their partners. These outwardly intimate arrangements required much impression management, with livid coercive hearts evidencing intense shame, rage, and depression. Victim maneuverability, resistance, and agency are consistent themes and convey a strong sense of the contingent nature of domination and the problems associated with commonly used notions of “control” in violent interpersonal relationships. The discussion of the actual killings raises the possibility that familicide fleetingly dissipates or dissolves unbearable feelings of humiliated fury, recovering, momentarily, a lonely patina of pride.Less
Chapter 4 focuses on eight perpetrators of familicide (7 male, one female) drawn from 77 cases (76 being male perpetrators) exhibiting a prior history of domestic violence and varying degrees of livid coercion. The author examines the early socialization of offenders, perpetrators’ searches for intimacy, including the lure of romance, and the parts played by aggressive and hostile, livid coercive behavior, sexual jealousy and obsessive attempts to control their partners. These outwardly intimate arrangements required much impression management, with livid coercive hearts evidencing intense shame, rage, and depression. Victim maneuverability, resistance, and agency are consistent themes and convey a strong sense of the contingent nature of domination and the problems associated with commonly used notions of “control” in violent interpersonal relationships. The discussion of the actual killings raises the possibility that familicide fleetingly dissipates or dissolves unbearable feelings of humiliated fury, recovering, momentarily, a lonely patina of pride.
