2019 Boys at Risk Conference II

Early Origins of Male Violence
A Bio-Psycho-Social & Infant Mental Health Approach to a Major Social Issue

When: May 1-3, 2019
Where: Santa Fe, NM – Santa Fe Community Convention Center (SFCCC)

Agenda at a Glance

CONFERENCE PLENARY PRESENTERS

Subject Area: Early Predictors of Aggression and Violence

Adrian Raine, DPhil. Author of The Anatomy of Violence & Professor of Criminology, Psychiatry, and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Raine’s  main area of interest is Neurocriminology – a new sub-discipline of Criminology which applies neuroscience techniques to probe the causes and cures of crime. His  laboratory focuses on risk and protective factors for childhood conduct disorder, reactive and proactive aggression, adult antisocial personality disorder, homicide, and psychopathy, taking a biopsychosocial perspective to the investigation of antisocial behavior in which the end-goal is to integrate social, psychological, and environmental processes with neurobiological approaches to better understand antisocial behavior.

Presentation: A Neurodevelopmental Perspective on Male Violence

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Several presenters will discuss their own and others’ research into the neurodevelopmental bases of violent behavior. Among these speakers will be Adrian Raine, University Professor of Criminology, Psychiatry, and Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime. To what extent can we say that repeated adult violence has its early origins in aberrant brain development? What may be the biopsychosocial contributions to such putative neural maldevelopment? And how may the answers to these questions help inform future prevention approaches? Dr. Raine’s presentation highlights the importance of neurobiological factors, among others, in understanding male violence.

James Blair, PhD: Director, Center for Neurobehavioral Research in Children, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Blair is an expert in the neurobiology of emotion, aggression, and antisocial behavior. His primary research focus is on the development of neuro-cognitiive systems that, when dysfunctional, give rise to the emergence of mood, anxiety, and externalizing symptoms.

Presentation: The Impact of Different Forms of Maltreatment on Brain Development and How this Affects the Risk for Violence

One of the main points of focus of the conference will be on the impact of early maltreatment on the developing brain. In particular, Dr. Blair will emphasize how maltreatment can impact bioneurological systems that, when dysfunctional, increase the risk for aggression. He will also examine the role of testosterone and consider why it might increase this risk.

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Sara Jaffee, PhD: Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Psychology, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Jaffee is a developmental psychopathologist who conducts research on at-risk families and children. She is interested in how stressful environments exacerbate underlying genetic vulnerabilities to affect children’s development, with a special interest in children’s antisocial behavior. Her work combines longitudinal, epidemiological methods with genetically-informative research designs to better understand how risk and protective factors operate in children’s development. She is also an Associate Editor at the journal Developmental Psychology and the Annual Reviews Editor at the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Presentation: Lead Exposure and Child Maltreatment as Models for How to Conceptualize Early-in-Life Risk Factors for Violence

The subject of  very early differences in the development of boys and girls in relation to specific risk factors will be central to the presentations at this conference. Are boys more likely to be vulnerable to some of these, and might they later contribute to antisocial behavior, including violence? Among the researchers who will discuss this topic is psychology professor, Sara Jaffee. Dr. Jaffee will talk about maltreatment received in infancy and also about lead poisoning as two possible contributors to later violence in boys.

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Theodore Beauchaine, PhD, Professor of Psychology at The Ohio State University, is interested in how highly heritable temperamental vulnerabilities, such as impulsivity, interact with high risk environments across development to affect both neuromaturation of the brain and emergence of poor self-and emotion regulation. Work from his lab focuses on neural systems of impulsive behavior, family contexts that facilitate progression of impulsivity to more severe psychological problems, and why similar vulnerabilities and risk factors result in different outcomes for boys (delinquency) versus girls (self-harm). 

Presentation:  An Ontogenic Process Perspective on Adjustment Problems Across the Lifespan: Neurobiological Vulnerabilities, Environmental Risk Factors, and Differential Outcomes for Boys Versus Girls

For many children, trait impulsivity arises early in life through low dopamine signaling in brain regions that process reward and associative learning. This dopamine signaling deficit confers a chronically irritable, discontented mood state that motivates impulsive behavior. High risk environments exacerbate this vulnerability by compromising neuromaturation of the prefrontal cortex, which ordinarily inhibits impulsive behaviors and subserves self-regulation. Despite empirical support for this model, it derives primarily from research conducted with boys. Our work suggests that impulsive girls show similar patterns of neural responding, but engage in self-injury and suicide attempts rather than overt aggression in contexts of risk.

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Daniel Shaw, PhD. Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, Director of the Center for Parents and Children, University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Shaw’s research interests include studying the development and prevention of early child conduct and emotional problems, and implementing and disseminating family-centered interventions for treating conduct problems in early childhood using novel community platforms.

Presentation: Early Childhood Prediction and Prevention of Adolescent and Young Adult Violent and Aggressive Behavior

Despite the higher risk of violent behavior for boys and especially those living in urban poverty, we know very little about the early childhood predictors of boys’ violent behavior committed during adolescence and young adulthood. We know even less about family-based interventions initiated during early childhood that prevent violence and other serious problem behaviors during adolescence. This presentation seeks to fill these gaps by examining early childhood predictors of later violent behavior among a cohort of low-income, urban boys followed prospectively from infancy through young adulthood, and the long-term treatment effects of a family-based intervention initiated in early childhood aimed at preventing violence and other serious problem behaviors in adolescence. Predictors of violence in the first study, including the caregiving context and children’s self-regulation abilities, were used to inform targets in the intervention study.

Jay Belsky, PhD: Robert M. and Natalie Reid Dorn Professor of Human Development, University of California, Davis. Professor Belsky is an internationally recognized expert in the field of child development and family studies. His areas of special expertise include the effects of day care, parent-child relations during the infancy and early childhood years, the transition to parenthood, the etiology of child maltreatment, and the evolutionary basis of parent and child functioning.

Presentation: Early Developmental Experience Affects Some Children More Than Others: Differential Susceptibility to Environmental Influences

The conference will address some aspects of evolutionary biology and psychology in relation to early violence. Much evidence indicates that being subjected to violence early gives rise to violent behavior later in childhood and adulthood. This may make evolutionary biological sense in preparing the child for an anticipated hostile future.  Dr. Belsky will discuss his research on why it also needs to be appreciated that for evolutionary biological reasons—given that the future is inherently uncertain—not all children succumb to such anticipated effects. He will also speculate about why it might be somewhat different for boys than for girls.

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Subject Area: Childhood and Adolescent Predictors of Aggression and Violence

Melvin Wilson, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia. Professor Wilson has an extensive background in academic, research and training activities generally focused on understanding contextual processes and outcomes in families and children of color.  His research interests encompass social concerns and developmental issues of low-income family life, including family structure, function, and context, family development and interaction, and poverty and resource management.

Presentation: The Role of Early Discrimination Experiences and the Parent-child Relationship in the Development of Maladaptive Behaviors in Adolescence

The conference will focus on societal-wide issues, such as racism and inequality, which have effects on violence. Melvin Wilson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, will present on the subject of how early experiences of discrimination—racial and economic—may change the parent-child relationship. Dr. Wilson will examine this in the context of the association with disruptive behaviors in adolescence.

Elizabeth Cauffman, PhD. Professor of Psychological Science, Education and Law, University of California, Irvine. Dr. Cauffman’s research addresses the intersect between adolescent development and juvenile justice.  She has published over 100 articles, chapters, and books on a range of topics in the study of contemporary adolescence, including adolescent brain development, risk-taking and decision-making, parent-adolescent relationships, and juvenile justice.

Presentation: Arrested Development: Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice

Dr. Cauffman will provide a developmental framework for understanding male violence.  Specifically, this developmental lens will examine not only the early origins of male violence but also the trajectories of criminal behavior as these youth change over time.

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Subject Area: Interventions and Policy Issues

David Olds, PhD. Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Prevention Research, Center for Family and Child Health, University of Colorado. Professor Olds has focused his career on developing and testing a program of prenatal and infancy home visiting by nurses for low-income mothers and their children, known as the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP). NFP nurses guide pregnant women and parents of young children to improve the outcomes of pregnancy, their children’s health and development, and their economic self-sufficiency, with the goal of reducing disparities over the life-course. Professor Olds spent 20 years developing and testing the NFP in a series of randomized clinical trials before offering it for public investment in 1996 under an initiative sponsored by the US Justice Department.

Presentation: Sex Differences in Child Development Outcomes in Randomized Clinical Trials of the Nurse-Family Partnership

The subject of early interventions to reduce violence will be an important part of the conference. Among the largest and best-known is the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), a home visiting program for first-time mothers created by Professor David Olds of the University of Colorado.Over many years of research Dr. Olds has found that the benefits of early home visiting are different for boys and girls. He will describe his research and discuss the consequences of this difference, the possible reasons for it, and how NFP addresses it.

Richard Tremblay, PhD. Winner: Stockholm Prize in Criminology, 2017. Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Psychology, University of Montreal. Since the early 1980s Dr. Tremblay  has been conducting a program of longitudinal and experimental studies, focusing on the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development of children from conception onward to understand the development of psychosocial adjustment problems and their prevention.

Presentation: Sex differences in the Development of Physical Aggression: An Intergenerational Perspective and Implications for Preventive Interventions

Several presenters will discuss the need for changing policy directions to address male violence based on contemporary findings from research in infant mental health and child development in the fields of biology, psychology, and sociology. Richard Tremblay, the 2017 winner of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology and Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics and Psychology at the University of Montreal, will examine sex differences in the development of chronic physical aggression and propose new directions for early interventions to prevent cases of chronic physical aggression.

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Kenneth Corvo, PhD. Associate Professor, Syracuse University School of Social Work. Dr. Corvo’s main research interests are family violence, child maltreatment, and youth violence. His work spans the range of scholarly inquiry from issues of policy and theory development to biopsychosocial developmental risk.

Presentation: Early Life Risk for Domestic Violence Perpetration: Implications for Practice and Policy

Dr. Corvo will describe how the policy/practice framework of domestic violence has created barriers to the scientific study of risk and has led to frequent misunderstandings about the early origins of domestic violence. His presentation will review the best literature to date on developmental risk for domestic violence with a particular emphasis on early-in-life maltreatment and inadequate attachment/bonding processes. Implications for policy and evidence-based practice will be discussed.

Hiram Fitzgerald, PhD. University Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University. Dr. Fitzgerald’s major areas of research include the study of infant and family development in community contexts, the impact of fathers on early child development, implementation of systemic community models of organizational process and change, the etiology of alcoholism, the digital divide and youth use of technologies, and broad issues related to engagement scholarship.

Presentation: Boys and Violence: A Developmental Science Perspective on Early Origins

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The conference will examine how healthy and resilient early child development might go astray. Dr. Fitzgerald has written and spoken extensively on the Risk-to-Resilience framework. He will present on the stresses that may occur during transitional phases of development as key to affecting bio-behavioral change in relation to the emergence of aggression and violence in boys.

Paul Golding, PhD. President of the Santa Fe Boys Educational Foundation, writes and speaks about the issue of boys at risk, the concept that guides the work of the foundation, informing its effort to organize conferences and publications on early male development. Some recent publications with co-author Hiram Fitzgerald include:
–The early biopsychosocial development of boys and the origins of violence in males, Infant Mental Health Journal, 2019.
-Psychology of boys at risk: Indicators from 0-5, Infant Mental Health Journal, 2017.
–Trauma and Boys, Birth to 3: What’s different?, Zero to Three Journal, 2016.
–Boys at Risk, Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development, 2nd Edition, forthcoming.

 

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SYMPOSIA & WORKSHOPS

 

TOPICS & PRESENTERS

GROUP A – Day 1 | May 1^st 3:30 – 4:30
Title: A multi-modal childcare-based preventive intervention: Opportunities and challenges to understand and prevent the development of aggressive behavior
(Please Note: This is a 90-minute session, 3:30-5:00)

Presenters: Carolyn Webster Stratton, PhD, Professor, Director, Parenting Clinic, Family and Child Nursing, University of Washington; Chloe Ferrer, PhD, University of Toulouse, France; France Capuano, PhD, University of Québec and Montréal; Sylvana Côté, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of Montreal and the Bordeaux Population Health INSERM UNIT1219 at the University of Bordeaux; Isabelle Vinet, M. Pse., University of Montreal, Canada; Marie-Josée Letarte, University of Québec in Sherbrooke

Summary: The aim of the workshop is to discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by early childhood randomized control trials aiming at the prevention of disruptive behaviors. We will profit from the expertise of world-renown expert Carolyn Webster Stratton to reflect on the best strategies for conducting efficacy trials. Two (or 3) teams of researchers will present early childhood efficacy trials (randomized clinical trials, RCTs) which are in different stages of implementation and discuss the content of the interventions as well as the evaluation strategies. The research projects aim to assess the impact of parent and educator training intervention to improve the quality of early childhood socializing environments in the home and in preschool. The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss the clinical-educational content of such studies as well as their experimental methodology. The following questions will be addressed:

• How to choose the best intervention modality (group, home visits, self-help material) as a function of the needs of the population?
• With the aim of impacting long term social and educational outcomes, what intervention intensity is needed, with whom?
• How to most effectively assess the impact of the interventions?
• How to assess the quality of the implementation of the intervention?

The symposium includes three 20 minute presentations:
1. Fostering the development of adaptive social behaviors in 3-5 year olds: An RCT in France
2. Preventing and managing disruptive behaviors in 2-4 year olds: An RCT in Canada
3. Implementing the incredible years program in new contexts
Incredible Years and Incredible Beginnings programs.
(Please note: this is a 90-minute session, 3:30-5)

Title: Supporting Fathers to Support Children: Macro and Micro Approaches (Part I)

Presenters: (from Starfish Family Services): Danielle Nicholls, LMSW, IMH-E (III), Infant Mental Health Supervisor; Melissa Steigerwald, LBSW, Case Management and Supports Coordination Supervisor; Susan Powers, Parenthood Program Coordinator; Eric Donald, M.A., Fatherhood Coordinator; Brian Foster, Outpatient Case Manager; Emmanuel Peters, Fatherhood Outreach

Summary: This workshop is the first part in a two-part workshop series (Part II tomorrow) discussing coordination and implementation of fatherhood services for a high-needs community population located near Detroit, Michigan. Program leaders at an urban nonprofit (Starfish Family Services in Dearborn, MI) created the Fatherhood Partnership to support fathers and children. This committee, representing seven different programs, collaborates to understand and meet fathers’ unique programming needs utilizing feedback from community fathers. The workshop will present the research around engaging fathers, models for integrating diverse services, and goals for future innovation. This qualitative focus group data of the Fatherhood Partnership guided the development of a fatherhood group intervention program called Fraternity of Fathers that is the subject of tomorrow’s workshop. Discussion, video, and activities will be used to illustrate the effort to understand the fathers’ needs and to create intervention efforts for greater father engagement.

Title: Early Childhood Education and Crime

Presenter: Jorge Garcia, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Clemson University.

Summary: This workshop presents new evidence on the crime-reducing impacts of a high-quality, intensive early childhood program with long-term follow-up evaluated by a randomized-controlled trial. Proportionately more women than men decrease their criminal participation as a consequence of participating in the program. This gender difference arises because of the worse home environments for girls with corresponding greater scope for improvement by the program. For both genders, treatment effects are larger in magnitude for the least advantaged children, as measured by their mother’s education at baseline. The dollar value of the social cost of criminal activity averted is higher for men because they commit more costly violent crimes. This talk is based on an article in the Infant Mental Health Journal Special Issue on the Early Biopsychosocial Development of Boys and the Origins of Violence. Co-authors of the article were James Heckman and Anna Ziff.

Title: Parenting for Peace

Presenter: Victor La Cerva, MD, formerly Medical Director of the Family Health Bureau, NM Department of Health & Emeritus clinical faculty, Department of Pediatrics, UNM Medical School.

Summary: There are a number of ways that parents of young boys can consciously be part of the solution. These include: fostering development of emotional fluency, limitation of exposure to violent media, war toys and screen time in general, setting limits and dealing appropriately with aggressive behavior without the use of corporal punishment.

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GROUP B – Day 2 | May 2^nd  11:30 – 12:30

 Title: Measuring Youth Violence Potential Among Males in Urban South Africa

Presenter: Ian Edelstein, PhD, Research Specialist, Research Use and Impact Assessment Unit Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa.

Summary: The intention of this workshop is to share experiences in developing/validating and implementing a tool to assess interpersonal violence risk (and changes in risk levels) among young males in high violence contexts in urban South Africa. The presenter will share insights from the process of conducting research on youth violence in such contexts, as well as research findings and interview footage with research participants to bring forward their voices and perspectives.

Title: Middle School Mentorship interventions using considerations of early development

Presenter: Peter Sheras, PhD, ABPP, Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, Board of Directors, American Psychological Association.

Summary: The Men’s Leadership Project, an intervention program sponsored by the University of Virginia, is a mentoring program based on understandings of the development of masculinity starting at a young age and manifesting as behavioral problems, including violence and emotional dysregulation in seventh grade boys. The Project pairs seventh grade mentees with college men mentors. The workshop demonstrates the experience of mentors and mentees and training of mentors in understanding early development.

Title: Supporting Fathers to Support Children: Macro and Micro Approaches (Part II)

Presenters : Danielle Nicholls, LMSW, IMH-E (III), Infant Mental Health Supervisor Starfish Family Services; Maria Muzik, MD, MS, Associate Professor, Research Associate Professor University of Michigan, Department of Psychiatry; Marisa Nicely, LMSW, Vice President of Clinical and Youth Services, Starfish Family Services; Nicole Miller, LMSW, Program Manager University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry; Eric Donald, MA, Fatherhood Coordinator, Starfish Family Services.

Summary: This workshop is the second part in a two-part workshop series (continuing Part I from the previous day) discussing coordination and implementation of fatherhood services for a high-needs community population. A community mental health program (Starfish Family Services in Dearborn, MI) and a university research group at the University of Michigan utilized feedback from at-risk fathers to enhance services for fathers and children. This workshop will use discussion, video, and activities to illustrate the Fraternity of Fathers group model and outcomes, considerations for implementation, and goals for fatherhood services.  Whereas the previous day’s presentation described the effort to understand Fathers’ needs, this workshop will describe the main programmatic outcome from the Fatherhood Partnership committee.

Title: Changing boys’ violent trajectory: Comprehensive Evidence-Based Early Intervention in Practice

Presenters: Presenters:  Areti Smaragdi, Ph.D.,is a SNAP® (Stop Now And Plan) Clinical Research Associate & Research Scientist Specialist at the Child Development Institute in Toronto. She is an expert in the neurobiological basis of and sex differences in childhood disruptive behavior, and has authored a number of peer-reviewed publications, including a book chapter, and presented in national and international scientific conferences on this subject; Margaret Walsh, Manager of SNAP Research, Evaluation and Systems, is a lead consultant on evaluation frameworks, research, and implementation/fidelity protocols.  She is currently heading the development of the web-based SNAP Implementation Fidelity Tool (SNAPiT). Margaret is co-author of the SNAP gender-specific risk/need assessment tool for girls (EARL-21G) and has co-led and authored a number of SNAP publications. She is one of the principal leads on the SNAP Youth Justice development project; Andrea Blackman completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (Hons) with a minor in Neuroscience at the University of Guelph. She is currently conducting research at the Child Development Institute in Toronto, where she oversees data collection and analysis for the SNAP program. She has co-authored several publications on the impact and efficacy of SNAP on treating externalizing behaviors, and most recently on the importance of a trauma-informed treatment approach.

Summary: This workshop will focus on an evidence-based, early crime prevention model (SNAP®; Stop Now And Plan) that teaches children 6-11 years old how to stop and think before they act and make better choices “in the moment.” Through live role-play and audience participation, we will demonstrate the core components of the model, present scientific evidence that exemplifies the program’s success, and discuss research and implementation strategies for successful crime-prevention, including how to apply SNAP skills to children with disruptive behavior problems.

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GROUP C – Day 3 | May 3^rd  11:20 – 12:20

 Title: Early Adolescent Males and Violence Mitigation

Presenters: Damon Archuletta, Group Facilitator, Parent Educator, Fathers New Mexico: Future Men Project; Gabriel Ortega, Group Facilitator, Parent Educator; Johnny Wilson, Executive Director, Fathers New Mexico.

Summary: This workshop is about the origins and working of Fathers New Mexico’s Future Men Project (FNM/FMP) in the Santa Fe Public Schools. The project delivers a weekly mentoring group for at-risk middle school boys in four schools. The in-school programming consists of weekly sessions with each student cohort, with the sessions designed to include topics about preventing teen births, drug and alcohol abuse, dating violence and gang involvement. A goal is to identify and emphasize protective factors supportive of the health of males in early adolescence. The workshop asks: Is it possible to mitigate violence risks in adolescent boys who have experienced risk factors in early life? FNM would like to share experiences in working with these boys about what has been learned from them. The workshop aims also to open up a broader discussion on how this work can be expanded in a cultural landscape that holds extremely limited resources for the mental health and the well-being of boys.

Title: Exclusionary School Discipline and Boys

Presenters:  Hailey Heinz, MA, Research Scientist, University of New Mexico Cradle to Career Policy Institute; Claire Dudley-Chavez, City of Albuquerque; Matthew Bernstein, Pegasus Legal Services for Children; Andrew Breidenbach, UNM Cradle to Career Policy Institute; Lily Hofstra, Pegasus Legal Services for Children.

Summary: An increasing body of evidence suggests that suspension and expulsion from school disproportionately affects boys, especially boys of color, and that these disparate impacts begin as early as preschool. This symposium will address this issue from several perspectives, including new data on the prevalence of early childhood expulsion in New Mexico, legal perspectives from the K-12 system, public policy, and best practices to minimize exclusionary discipline in early childhood settings.

Title: Supporting Negative Affect in Young Male Children toward Positive Outcomes

Presenters: Shashi DeHaan, Masters of Advanced Studies – Infant Family Practice, endorsed Infant Mental Health Specialist, Certified Family Trauma Professional (MAS-IFP, IMH-E®, CFTP) Early HeadStart/Head Start Reflective Consultant, Central Pennsylvania; Patricia (Patti) Studley, Masters of Advanced Studies – Infant Family Practice, endorsed Infant Mental Health Specialist, Circle of Security (MAS-IFP, IMH-E®, COS®) Family Time Coach, Phoenix, AZ.

Summary: This workshop is a facilitated conversation about supporting caregiver capacity toward understanding and working with negative affect and externalizing expressions in young male children. The workshop will explore the unique developmental needs of young male children and evidence-based strategies toward positive developmental trajectories through building caregivers’ reflective capacity and co-regulation. We will take a look at the science, evidence and awareness of self, through presentation, guided conversation, and videos.

Title: The Effects of Trauma in Childhood and Adulthood–Clinical Discussion

Presenter: Erik Goodwyn, MD, Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences where he supervises long-term psychotherapy for psychiatric residents. He was also Clinic Chief at the Minot Air Force Base Mental Health Outpatient Services in North Dakota where he worked with many cases of PTSD, a sub-speciality of his psychiatric work.

Summary: Theory proposes that early trauma indirectly causes attachment disturbances by interrupting normal learning. However, trauma can directly disrupt psychic integrity and attachment structure regardless of age at trauma, showing dissociation and aggressive attachment disturbance due to the trauma rather than the interruption of early attachment history. In this paper, an illustrative case of a twenty year combat veteran with no history of childhood trauma, but extensive PTSD, is presented and discussed as is speculation about why this outcome might be more likely to occur with a man than a woman.

Title: Profiling Mentally Ill Male Mass Murderers
Sweeney B

Presenter: Lawrence Raifman, J.D., PhD, Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University

Summary: Profiling Mentally Ill Male Mass Murderers is an introductory workshop with a focus on the problem of male spree killers. The spree killer, whether or not impacted by mental illness is a considerable scourge upon society. Factors like easy access to guns by dangerous mentally ill persons, inadequate commitment laws, the inability to predict dangerous behavior, and media frenzy all contribute to an increasing death toll. This workshop relies upon case studies to generate a ten-stage pathway, which puts an emphasis upon the importance of a chronic “hatred for humanity,” inadequate timely mental health intervention, a revenge fantasy, meticulous planning, and a tipping point as being crucial factors for young men who become mass murderers.

 

*Subject to change

 

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