Physical Violence Assignment Analysis

Chapter four of our text addresses physical violence. For this assignment, I have chosen an article related to a recent ongoing homicide investigation, and I will attempt to relate content from the chapter to this particular story. According to the news article, police from Milford, Deleware have acquired arrest warrants for two suspects that are believed to have been involved in the murder and home invasion of a forty year old man named John Harmon on August 8, 2015. This is an ongoing investigation, so the suspect's guilt cannot yet be determined with confidence. However, the murder of John Harmon is still related to content from chapter four that we have discussed this week. I will begin discussing the content that was covered in chapter …show more content…
The book specifically notes that it is less likely for murders to occur during the spring or fall, and that more murders occur during July and August. Additionally, it is suggested that murders are more likely to occur on Saturday nights as opposed to any other time during the week. In relation to the news article attached to this assignment, it remains unclear as to whether this incident occurred at night. However, this murder did occur on a Saturday in August. Therefore, these aspects related to the news article align with the statistics provided from the book that I have discussed previously in this paragraph. In contrast to the statistics provided earlier in this paragraph, the book notes that murders related to a higher socioeconomic class are more premeditated, and that studies show that these murders do not vary by time of the year or week. Personally, I would suggest that these murders are more thought out because individuals in a higher socioeconomic class have more to lose and are more likely to possess a better education than those from lower socioeconomic classes. Hypothetically speaking, I believe that an individual that has been enriched with knowledge from a strong educational background and gained status within a community would be less likely to impulsively murder another without premeditation. I believe that they would be more likely to consider the negative impact that could …show more content…
This theory revolves around excessive external restraint and physical punishment. According to page 78, external restraint refers to, “The degree to which behavior is required to conform to the demands and expectations of other persons.” This theory suggests that high levels of external restraint cause people to blame others for their frustrations in life. As a result, this makes these individuals more likely to commit murders. An extension of this theory revolves around socialization. The extension of this theory suggests that individuals that are socialized by their parents using physical punishment are more likely to commit murder. The second theory included in chapter four is called subculture of violence theory. This theory suggests that a subculture of violence exists, and that it perpetuates a belief in the utilization of violence to reach a resolution when confronted with conflicts among one another. The book states that this subculture does not cause homicide, but is believed to encourage homicide in individuals that are dissatisfied with inequality and poverty. In summary, the information from this chapter was much more dense than the previous chapters I have read for this class. I have attempted to make as many connections between the news article and