by Geoff Dean, Ph.D. (Australia) and Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. \u00a0(U.S.A.)<\/span><\/p>\n What causes people to shoot up a gay nightclub?\u00a0 Or, shoot up a holiday party of co-workers or drive a truck into the middle of a crowd celebrating independence day killing a lot of children?\u00a0 Or shoot innocent people going to work or\u00a0 attending college classes.\u00a0 We want to believe it is the Islamic faith and gaining the love of virgins in the afterlife.\u00a0 Not quite that simple.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n AS MOST THINGS IN LIFE, MASS MURDERS ARE A COMBINATION OF A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT FACTORS.\u00a0 Some of them are through the filter of mental illness.\u00a0 He was described as unhinged and unstable.\u00a0 His reality is going to be very different from a normal person because of his mental illness.\u00a0 Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter, was a steroid user, abusive and secretly gay.\u00a0 Many mass killers have at least some mental health issue, were damaged when they were younger, or are desperate enough to sacrifice themselves to make an impact in a world they will never see.\u00a0 Their view of the world is skewed, affected by their mental state. \u00a0Add to that some of the propaganda set forth by groups like ISIS.\u00a0 The murderer may be open to different interpretations of the world, even though it is not so bad for him.\u00a0 Extreme thinking is not too far for Omar to go as he swore vengeance on Americans because of airstrikes in Libya and Iraq. \u00a0\u00a0The guy who drove the truck into a crowd of civilians in Nice, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhel, was seriously depressed and lonely, and this stimulated him to have a different filter for his perceptions.\u00a0 What is important is that filter for the perceptions forms their interpretation of the world, and the extremeness that they think they face in their daily life.\u00a0 It determines the belief system they use to organize their world.\u00a0 It determines the perceptions of the world as a terrible place, and justifies terrible acts like mass murder.\u00a0 How are these perceptions formed?<\/span><\/p>\n Once a person has mental illness as a filter and becomes extreme in their thought process, the next step is determining the direction of the extreme fantasy.\u00a0 That is where radicalization comes into play.<\/span><\/p>\n Radicalization is the process of that extreme thinking getting focused on undermining the status quo or the norm of the way people live.\u00a0 It is the desire to take away people\u2019s freedom of choice and the expression of ideas.\u00a0 When a person is radicalized, he looks to do anything to undermine society and will find a direction from wherever he can.\u00a0 So they look for an anti-establishment philosophy and too often find it in the radical Islamic movement.\u00a0 Add to that and the unsettled feeling that often accompanies a radicalized person, and mass murder is a logical action to change the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A great many of the men who have made a name for themselves by mass murder share one major characteristic \u2013 they have a deep hatred for women.\u00a0 Many mass murderers were reported for domestic violence, many should have been.\u00a0 Most have some connection to abusing women.\u00a0 Elliot Rodger, who gunned down seven in Isla Vista in California in 2014, wrote: \u201cI don\u2019t know why you girls aren\u2019t attracted to me but I will punish you all for it \u2026 you will finally see that I am, in truth, the superior one, the true alpha male.\u201d Adam Lanza, who killed 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, wrote that women were selfish. Robert Dear, who killed three and injured nine at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in November, had a history of violence against women and an arrest for rape. \u00a0Dylann Roof, who massacred nine at a Charleston church, was raised by a father who abused his stepmother and claimed African-Americans \u201crape our women.\u201d \u00a0This runs throughout mass murderers and in fact may be why they are attracted to the ISIS.<\/span><\/p>\n Many traditional Muslim cultures tend to underplay the rights of women in favor of the men.\u00a0 Women are subservient and that appeals to many men who have a penchant for gendered violence.\u00a0 If you add sexual slavery into the mix and traditional roles with punishment for moving away from a rigid rule for women, and it is easy to see where an extreme thinking, radicalized, mentally unstable person might find ISIS an attractive philosophy for life.<\/span><\/p>\n Now finally, let\u2019s add in \u201cDisenfranchised and Disengaged.\u201d\u00a0 People don\u2019t give up their lives if they feel their lives are meaningful. \u00a0If your life feels meaningless, people will do anything to give it meaning, even if it\u2019s in the last few seconds of their life.\u00a0\u00a0 We live in a narcissistic world where everything is me-first, everyone else second, especially in our youth culture.\u00a0 The whole concept of taking care of others is so foreign to many people that it becomes almost motivation for the anti-establishment thoughts.\u00a0 When you don\u2019t fit in, and you don\u2019t find other that like you, you want to get back at people for being left out.\u00a0 Mass murder is a way to punish those who don\u2019t want you to fit in.\u00a0 And you become part of the news, the mainstream. \u00a0It\u2019s clearly a disturbed thought pattern, but we see it again and again.\u00a0 This is dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n We are reminded of a Family Circle comic from our youth where the parents decided to stop the boys from playing war.\u00a0 They would take away all the military stuff and the toy guns and tell the kids playing war when Vietnam was going on is wrong.\u00a0 The boys were seen in the last frame of the comics with pots on their heads and pointing sticks at each other, finding a way to do what is natural to them.\u00a0 Controlling guns may have some effect, but our need is to control people who are disenfranchised, disengaged, have mental health problems, like gendered violence, and\/or have extreme thoughts or are facing radicalization.\u00a0 We need to became less narcissistic and reach out to people who are struggling in this world.\u00a0 We need programs that identify and can supply some kind of relief to the children who are victims of domestic violence themselves.\u00a0 We need many people to make the community that doesn\u2019t tolerate violence but works to stop it at the root causes.\u00a0 And then some people have to be watched \u2013 closely.\u00a0 You can\u2019t get around that evasion of rights unfortunately.\u00a0 Simple solution \u2013 social programs, everybody on the same page, and watching people.<\/span><\/p>\n We have a major task to overcome radicalization, disenfranchising, abuse of women and extreme thought, and it is going to have to be everyone\u2019s job, of all races, genders and religion to work on it together.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Site Editor:\u00a0 Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Please share this article from down below.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Please join the email list on the top of the sidebar and you can get these sent to your email.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Come back regularly for more updated articles on police psychology<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police Psychology | It Isn\u2019t All About Islam by Geoff Dean, Ph.D. (Australia) and Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. \u00a0(U.S.A.) What causes people to shoot up a gay nightclub?\u00a0 Or, shoot up a holiday party of co-workers or drive a truck into the middle of a crowd celebrating independence day killing a lot of children?\u00a0 Or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17168888],"tags":[17168797,17168831,17168938],"class_list":["post-3685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information","tag-police-psychology","tag-police-stress","tag-terrorism-indoctrination"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1036,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=1036","url_meta":{"origin":3685,"position":0},"title":"Police Psychology | The Mental Game in Law Enforcement","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"February 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | The Mental Game in Law Enforcement \u201c90 percent of the game is half mental\u201d (attributed to Yogi Berra) by Doug Gentz, Ph.D. - Psychological Services After you\u2019ve acquired the knowledge and skills required for any performance, further improvement depends on your ability to manage your nervous system\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mastering Effort"","block_context":{"text":"Mastering Effort","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168880"},"img":{"alt_text":"performance 1 Police pscyhology","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/performance-1-300x16.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5682,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=5682","url_meta":{"origin":3685,"position":1},"title":"Police Psychology | Detecting Bombs","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"March 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | Detecting Bombs by Matthew Sharps, Ph.D. and Gary S. 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Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP \u00a0 \u00a0 Site Administrator:\u00a0 Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP Please share this article from down below. Please join the email list on the top of the sidebar and you can get these sent to your email.\u00a0 Also follow me on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mastering Emotions"","block_context":{"text":"Mastering Emotions","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17165629"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4552,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=4552","url_meta":{"origin":3685,"position":4},"title":"Police Psychology | Emotional Pinball","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"October 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | Emotional Pinball by Gary S. 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