Madness, Media and the Dark Knight Massacre
Could the tragic movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado been prevented?
24-year-old James Holmes was seemingly showing signs of paranoid schizophrenia before he allegedly took the lives of 12 people and wounded 58 others at the midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” at the Century 16 Theaters.
Holmes joins a growing list of notorious perpetrators – from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski to Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho – all exhibiting nearly identical symptoms left uncontrolled resulting in horrific, unthinkable violence.
Having examined more than 400 psychotic killers spanning a 30-year career in Forensic Psychology, Dr. Barbara Kirwin knows that predicting an act of violence “is still more an art than a science.” However, with the right questions asked by psychiatrists and the establishment of appropriate treatment programs, there is a shot at prevention.
Click here to download Dr. Kirwin’s full commentary on the Aurora killings.
New Services Offered
Dr. Kirwin has expanded her court-mandated programs in Anger Management, Battering and Domestic Abuse to include the Duluth Model, developed in Duluth, Minnesota, which is aimed at reducing domestic violence against women.
It is the first multi-disciplinary program designed to address the issue of domestic violence. The program has become a model for programs in many jurisdictions, including New York and California, where Dr. Kirwin currently provides court-mandated interventions.
A US study published in 2002 sponsored by the federal government found that batterers who complete programs based on the "Duluth Model," are less likely to repeat acts of domestic violence than those who do not complete any batterers intervention program.
Mad, the Bad, and the Innocent, The: The Criminal Mind on Trial - Tales of a Forensic Psychologist [Hardcover]
List Price: $35.00
