Senseless Violence: A Global Problem With Psychological Ramifications

As “baby boomers” we grew up in the 1950s when we believed that the cold war was most threatening of world order and a frightening possibility. It was difficult to believe, then, that it could get worse. Much worse. It is now almost a daily occurrence around the globe. People are being shot, slaughtered, maimed, and disappear for a multitude of reasons, none having any connection, most of the time, with the victims. The scale of loss when these tragedies occur is devastating, leaving the public as well as policy makers and legislators scrambling for solutions, clarification, and understanding how we have become a society where violence is so rampant, so frequent, and so senseless.

The following is a sample of such senseless violence that occurred within the last 18 months:

1. A recent report (Sanchez et al., 2016) indicates that since its inception, ISIS has carried out over 75 terrorist attacks in approximately 20 countries other than Iraq and Syria. Outside of those two countries, they have killed almost 1,280 people and injured more than 1,770 others. Some of the more commonly known and recent ISIS attacks include the 2 explosions at Brussels airport on March 22, 2016, in which ISIS confirmed that its fighters had carried out the attack. Another example is the attack which occurred on March 19, 2016 where a suicide bomber strikes a busy tourist area in Istanbul, Turkey, and the minister had declared that the attacker was definitely linked to ISIS. That attack alone injured 36 and killed 4 people. Since 2014, ISIS has terrorized and killed many, and it has also expanded and is now wreaking havoc in many more countries than before and is more active on posting extremely torturous photo and video content.

2. In Brussels, there were three explosion hits killing at least 34 people and injuring 190 others seriously. The first two bombs exploded at Zaventem Airport and the third was the subway train near European Union headquarters. ISIS later claimed that their fighters were responsible for this attack. The first attack and the second were only minutes apart, starting with the first around 8:00 a.m. The third bomb had killed 20 people and injured more than 100, and it occurred around 9:10 a.m. The following day, the two suicide bombers were identified as brothers Khalid and Brahim El Bakraoui. Both brothers had rented an apartment in which the Paris terror suspect, Salah Abdeslam's fingerprints were found. The third blast revealed a suspect, as Najim Laachraoui, suspected bomb maker, who has not been caught yet (John & Reilly, 2016).

3. A deadly shooting spree occurred on Friday in Munich Germany in which 9 people were killed and 16 others brutally injured. While police hunted for potential attackers (suspected 3), they came across a man who had killed himself near the site itself. Based on camera footage, the police in Munich have concluded that he was the only gunman, identified as an 18-year-old German-Iranian who was in Munich for two years. The shooting began around 5:50 p.m. and one of the witnesses say that they heard the man recite an Islamic verse, which implied that the man may have been Muslim (Shoichet, Ellis, & Hanna, 2016).

4. Thirteen people were left wounded in shootings across Chicago, and one man was pronounced dead on Thursday July 21, 2016. Another shooting was done by a cop, after the man proceeded to shoot an officer in the leg in South Loop Park. Around 9:15 p.m. a fatal shooting involving a 29-year-old man who was walking up 6700 block of South Chappel, when he was shot in the chest by an unknown person. He was escorted to a Cook County hospital where he was pronounced dead (Armentrout, 2016).

5. One of the most deadly shootings to ever occur in the United States has left the city of Orlando in shock. The shooting occurred at a gay night club called Pulse. Occurring on June 12, 2016, 49 people were found to be dead, and 53 others injured after the shooter attacked during nightclub hours. The attacker had been identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen. The gunman had taken several hostages that were found to be hiding in the stalls in the washrooms. The police was successful in taking down Mateen, after a supposed 3-hour standoff. According to reports, Mateen has sworn allegiance to ISIL and the FBI remains unsure and skeptical of reports claiming that Mateen was a regular at the gay nightclub and had used gay dating sites previously. Despite the claims, the CIA said it did not find any strong links between ISIL and Mateen (Berman & Zapotosky, 2016).

6. During a time of grievance and mourning, a bomb attack has left many witnesses in Pakistan horrified. Around 100 Pakistani lawyers gathered at a government-run hospital in Quetta, Pakistan on August 8, 2016. Lawyers had gathered at the Quetta Civil Hospital to express their condolences to their killed colleague, prominent attorney Bilal Kasi. At this gathering, a Taliban terrorist group known as Jamaat-ur-Ahrar had targeted the group of lawyers with a planned suicide bomber attack killing 70 people and wounding nearly 100. The motive behind the attack is still unclear, but it has been speculated by Ali Zafar, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Assosication of Pakistan, that lawyers are being targeted as they support democracy and people's rights (Associated Press, 2016).

7. A night of celebration in Nice, France was quickly turned into a horrendous nightmare on July 14, 2016. Following the fireworks show in festivity of Bastille Day, a large 19-ton truck drove into the celebrating crowds. The driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, drove the truck for approximately 2 km before finally being shot dead by police. His terror attack killed around 84 people, including 10 children (Chazan et al., 2016).

8. The most surprising terror attacks are those that are conducted by a co-worker and neighbor. Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were a married couple that resided in San Bernardino, California in the United States of America. They opened fire at a holiday party, specifically the party at Inland Regional Center on December 2, 2015 where Syed Rizwan Farook had been employed for the last five years. It was speculated that they had plotted the terror attack in advance, before the couple was engaged. They killed 14 people and injured around 21 others before they were killed in an exchange of gunfire with police (Calamur, Koren, & Ford 2015).

This special issue is dedicated to all those innocent victims who were targeted, although they have done nothing to cause the violence that was directed at them. We will briefly overview the articles that we included in this publication.

Abo-Zena's article opens this issue and she attempts to make sense of senseless violence. Following a definition of senseless violence, the article reviews violence that is characterized by micro aggression, violence that is politically and socially motivated in historic perspective, and ends with ways that can be utilized to reduce violence.

Madfis discusses the concepts of pointlessness, patternlessness, and deterioration of multiple-victim school shootings gleaned from empirical research regarding the phenomenon. The article reviews the academic literature on school rampage shootings and explores the extent to which these attacks are and are not random acts of violence.

Declercq et al. address a specific and most disturbing case of senseless violence, that of a parent killing his/her child. As unfathomable as it is, we hear of such cases, in some cultures more frequently than in others. The article presents a fully documented case of a paternal filicide, in which two motives were present: spousal revenge as well as altruism. The choice of the victim was in line with emerging evidence indicating that children with disabilities, in general, and with autism, in particular, are frequent victims of filicide-suicide. The father was diagnosed as suffering from a schizoid personality disorder.

Allely et al. explore the research findings that point out the increased risk of violence meted on individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder [ASD], while the general public may believe that those autistic individuals are actually the perpetrators. There is, adds Allely, a small subgroup of individuals with ASD who do exhibit violent offending behaviors and our previous work has suggested that other factors, such as adverse childhood experiences, might significantly contribute to their violent behavior. The author adds that school shootings and mass killings are not uncommonly carried out by individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, a finding that requires further research and clarification.

Sawyer and Márquez shed light on the “collateral” sufferers of senseless violence that we hardly hear about. Addressing the situation in the southern border of the United States, they highlight what is experienced by the unaccompanied children from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador who cross illegally through the Mexican border and then into the United States. Many of these children leave home to flee violence, starvation, impoverished living conditions, or other life-threatening situations. They point out that the untreated, traumatic events experienced by this population can develop into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a potentially life-changing and physically threatening psychological and medical issue. There is an urgent need not only to allow those kids to enter the United States, but it is essential to provide them with treatment of acute stress, anxiety, and depression associated with traumatic events so that they can move forward with their lives.

Krantz et al. article explore the connection between violent video games (that youngsters may find alluring) and desensitization to violence, decreased empathy and prosocial behavior, and aggressive thoughts and behaviors. The author alerts us to the fact that although research indicated that the connection does exist, these video games continue to be available and used widely, despite their negative influence on the players and indirect promotion of increased tolerance of violent behavior.

Miller examines the Holocaust, which he termed “one of history's greatest atrocities” and offers an analytic, integrative review of select themes associated with the Holocaust. Miller emphasizes the importance of having a greater understanding of the sheer brutality of violence perpetuated in the Holocaust. As part of this discussion, considerable attention is given to how Internet-based photographs and videos from the Holocaust era can provide greater insight into understanding the evil associated with this genocide.