Listening to killers : lessons learned from my twenty years as a psychological expert witness in murder cases

Listening to killers Lessons learned from my twenty years as a psychological expert witness in murder cases

James Garbarino

Book - 2015

"Listening to Killers offers an inside look at twenty years' worth of murder files from Dr. James Garbarino, a leading expert psychological witness who listens to killers so that he can testify in court. The author offers detailed accounts of how killers travel a path that leads from childhood innocence to lethal violence in adolescence or adulthood. He places the emotional and moral damage of each individual killer within a larger scientific framework of social, psychological, anthropological, and biological research on human development. By linking individual cases to broad social and cultural issues and illustrating the social toxicity and unresolved trauma that drive some people to kill, Dr. Garbarino highlights the humanity w...e share with killers and the role of understanding and empathy in breaking the cycle of violence"--Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Murderers > Psychology.
Murder > Psychological aspects.
Trials (Murder)
Evidence, Expert.
Published
Oakland, California : University of California Press [2015]
Language
English
Main Author
James Garbarino (author)
Physical Description
x, 296 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780520282865
9780520282872
  • Introduction : becoming an expert witness
  • The concept of choice in the criminal justice system
  • Keeping killers inside our circle of caring
  • Moral damage: growing up with a war zone mentality
  • Emotional damage: the consequences of unresolved trauma
  • "If you're old enough to do the crime, you're old enough to do the time"
  • Tales of rehabilitation, transformation, and redemption
  • Guns don't kill people-- people with guns kill people
  • Making sense of the senseless: understanding and preventing killing in America.
Review by Library Journal Review

Starred Review. Garbarino (Maude C. Clarke Chair in Humanistic Psychology, Loyola Univ., Chicago) is perhaps the preeminent expert on childhood abuse and trauma as formative factors leading to adult violence. He is also an experienced psychological expert witness in murder trials. This inviting investigation expands upon the convincing arguments the author made in 1999's Lost Boys. He introduces the practice of "listening to killers," rather than judging them precipitately. Employing powerful case studies of murderers, Garbarino explores the dark psychological recesses of their pasts and cites the prevalence of horrific physical and sexual abuse in their histories. Even more poignant, though, is his comparison of these offenders to children who grow up in a war zone. This sort of unceasing, pervasive trauma generates dissociation and other defense mechanisms that may save their lives but destroy their psyches in the process. Thus, as expert witness, Garbarino can introduce valid psychological evidence as a mitigating factor for sentencing purposes. VERDICT This book should become the definitive text on the subject. Indispensable for readers of works such as Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery.-Lynne Maxwell, West Virginia Univ. Coll. of Law Lib., Morgantown (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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