Unveiling the shadows of meaning: Meaning-making for perpetrators of homicide

Abstract

Human beings are thought to have unique capacities to interpret and make meaning after major life events. However this process may be complicated and difficult after events that involve anger and aggression and when dangerousness and destructiveness come to the fore. Meaning making may be especially challenging when such an event is incomprehensible to the victim's family and society, due to the perpetrator's irreversible actions and the painful awareness that a human life has been lost. Meaning-making for the perpetrator, including owning of responsibility, in the aftermath of a serious and violent crime remains under-explored; perhaps this is because violent death is an extraordinary behavior with tragic consequences on the victim that invokes enormous anxiety at the thought of exploration. The aim of this paper is to draw upon criminological, forensic and psychology literature to provide a unified perspective on meaning-making processes and what meanings are made for and by the offender in the aftermath of homicide. From the perspective of the perpetrator, challenges might include how sense can be made of the tragedy, including how a redemptive story can emerge and in turn lead to pro-social identity changes. The paper concludes by highlighting consequences and lack of adjustment following incomprehensibility.

Society, Her or Me? An Explanatory Model of Intimate Femicide Among Male Perpetrators in Buenos Aires, Argentina

“…The redemption narrative illustrates how some of the participants approach and understand themselves and the therapeutic process after the femicide; it aligns with literature which found a similar structural narrative in the sense-making process of homicide perpetrators (Ferrito et al, 2012(Ferrito et al, , 2017. The redemption narrative was found among men (n = 4) who described intimate partner violence in their relationship(s), who rationalized this violence, and who viewed the intimate femicide from the perspective of an internal locus of explanation focused on themselves.…”

“…Different disciplines and theoretical schools-including life-course criminology (Farrington, 2003), cultural criminology (Ferrell, 1997), and the sociology and anthropology of violence (Collins, 2009;Riches, 1986) have addressed how perpetrators narrate their lives and how they signify violence. Biographical studies of homicide perpetrators have shown the profound impact of harsh experiences, especially during childhood, in future violence perpetration (Ferrito et al, 2017;Viscardi, 2006). The low/high threshold-tolerance of violence has also been a common focus of attention to analyze how violent acts are minimized and normalized both in daily routines (Heilman & Barker, 2018;Launius & Hassel, 2015) and extraordinary circumstances (Roy, 2008).…”

“…In the field of narrative analysis, a specific line of inquiry has focused on the meaning-making process and the explanatory discourses of homicide perpetrators (Adshead et al, 2015;Ferrito et al, 2017). These studies show that the life of perpetrators should be understood as "echoes from the past" (especially those related to traumatic events) (Adshead, 2003).…”

You and Your Laws and Us With Our Laws : A Murderer s Stories Navigate Conflicting Normative Domains

“…A story (which is one of the principal types of narrative) has a structure or content that is susceptible to analysis, as amply shown in the humanities and social sciences (LABOV, 1972;LABOV and WALETZKY, 1997;MISHLER, 1995;RIESSMAN, 2005), including criminology (ALTHOFF et al, 2020;PRESSER and SANDBERG, 2015b). In particular, "Narrative Criminology" (PRESSER, 2009) has sought to use narrative analysis to study offenders' subjective interpretations of their crimes and the ways in which their meanings are created and communicated through stories (FERRITO et al, 2017;PRESSER and SANDBERG, 2015b). Narrative criminologists are interested in the stories that offenders tell about their crimes, because those stories reveal the ways in which offenders make sense of their experiences and construct their identities and sense of self (PRESSER, 2004;SANDBERG et al, 2015).…”

Making Sense of the Dark: A Study on the Identity of Men Who Committed Homicide

“…Of direct relevance is, Ferrito, Needs and Adshead's (2017) summary of the literature in relation to meaning-making processes and what meanings are made for and by the offender in the aftermath of homicide.…”