Why Men Kill Their Families: Wicked Minds

Why did Andrea Yates kill her five children? Why did Joseph Stack torch his house with his family inside, hoping to burn them alive, and then bomb a building in Austin, TX? What provoked Neal Jacobson to slaughter his entire family in Wellington, Fla., only hours before the boys were scheduled to celebrate their birthday? Was the Ft. Hood killer able to be stopped before he committed those heinous acts? What sort of sick world do we live in that people can not only kill another person, but people they are suppose to love and care for deeply?

"Family annihilators," as criminologists call them, are among the least-understood types of killers. Since the perpetrators usually either kill themselves or immediately confess, such cases tend to be solved quickly and disappear from the headlines.

Even though the condition of the economy is loosely, and often times a weak, link with murder rates, family murder-suicides are different. The economy's appeture is directly linked to this sort of murder. While murder rates are down this year, family murder-suicide rates have jumped 9%. That fact doesn't console me one bit, does it for you?

A 10 year study by Northern Arizona University revealed some unsettling facts.

• Within the category of multiple murders, familicides are the most common, averaging about 41 percent of the total in recent years
• 95% are white middle-aged males (refer back to Stack and Jacobson), women turn their violence or anger inward ordinarily
• These perpetrators are often abused as children and suffer from an inferiority complex
• Feeling powerless as kids, many try to exert strict control over their households and seek to create an idealized version of family that they never experienced
• Job scarcity, rising tension, and declining economy threaten their maintainance of control
• They suffer from misogeny-something I often wonder if a couple of my coworkers have! (misogeny is when a man doesn't like or has a beef with women)

These men fall into two catagories.

• The "livid coercive" killers

• These people are controlling and sometimes abusive figures who derive self-worth from the authority they exert at home
• This leads to marriage crisis and marital seperation which leads to humiliation and violence

• The "civil reputable" killer

• Entire identity is his family
• The father is almost always considering suicide as the only escape from some sort of financial crisis
• The only way to "save" his family from doom, the devil, the IRS, or pending catastrophe is to kill them (Yates and Stack fit this category)
• They are disgruntled by their former employer
• They blame it on someone or something, like video games

For further elaboration as to why people kill their families,click here.

One myth about serial killers is that they are mentally ill. This sickens me. I have major depression. I have immediate family members with serious mental health problems. NONE of us have ever had suicidal or homicidal thoughts. There has been research after reasearch study that has proven that mental illness is not the driving force for murdering someone. Just because you are mentally ill doesn't give you a higher chance of murdering someone and visa versa. Most murderers are stable-minded. But, it's the few that aren't that make the news!

Sometimes they leave a note, especially in the case with the "civil reputable" killer, however that's not always the case. Social workers and law enforcement should be wary of negative changes in finances with these people who are a ticking time-bomb. Those who aren't employed as such should adopt a "Leave it to Beaver"mentality and get their asses off their electronic slavemasters. Just starting a conversation at the mailbox, mowing someone's lawn for them, or playing ball with their kids and your kids is all that is necessary. Remember: killers of all types often "practice" for months before the actual event, especially if they plan to take out family members.