The violated body

Canter, David V. (2002) The violated body. In: The Body. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 57-75. ISBN 9780521782920

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Abstract

Many murderers have similar characteristics. Not only are they likely to be men, but many studies also show they are likely to be in their early 20’s, from disturbed, dysfunctional family backgrounds with some prior criminal experience, not necessarily for crimes of violence. These features that murderers tend to have in common, can be seen as contributing to a limited portfolio of ways of dealing with other people. Their dysfunctional backgrounds mean that they have difficulty in feeling and knowing what it means to be a person, especially in seeing the world form another’s point of view. They see the cause of their frustration, anger or jealousy, or opportunity to slake their greed, as encapsulated in the object of another being. They want to remove or destroy that entity as the only way they can relate to the individual they see as causing their reactions. Murderers therefore provide a rather exaggerated illustration of the consequences of confusing the person and their body, violating the body through acts of aggression, as a product of this confusion

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