Homicide
Areas Of Focus
Counterintuitive Behaviors Homicide
- History of being abused
- Offending against someone in the same age group or younger
- Targeting a vulnerable or dependent individual
- Expressing confusion or shame about their actions
- Continuing to express loyalty or affection for their abuser
- Repeating patterns of abuse they experienced
- Justifying their offense based on their own trauma
- Demonstrating unresolved trauma symptoms (e.g., hypervigilance, dissociation)
- Engaging in the same harmful behaviors they once condemned
- Failing to seek help or intervention prior to offending
- Difficulty distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate behavior
- Offending within the context of a dysfunctional or abusive environment
- Expressing distorted beliefs about relationships or power
- Demonstrating limited emotional insight or maturity
- Showing both victim and perpetrator characteristics simultaneously
- Displaying low self-esteem or self-worth
- Acting out sexually or violently as a form of coping
- Engaging in self-destructive behaviors along with offending
- Using substances to cope with guilt or trauma related to both victimization and offending
Why Expert Testimony Matters in Homicide Cases
Expert testimony sheds light on how trauma, coercion, and psychological distress influence criminal behavior and involvement, supporting nuanced assessment of responsibility.
- Explains trauma’s profound impact on cognition, judgment, and impulse control, describing how acute and chronic trauma affect brain functions critical to rational decision-making and risk assessment.
- Clarifies effects of coercion, manipulation, and fear, illustrating how individuals may become involved in criminal acts under duress, threats to safety, or manipulation by more powerful offenders.
- Educates on survival mechanisms activated during traumatic or high-threat situations, including dissociation, fight-or-flight responses, and impaired memory, which shape behavior in ways jurors may misunderstand.
- Addresses complex dynamics in accomplice relationships, highlighting power imbalances, emotional manipulation, and trauma bonds that influence participation in criminal acts.
- Disrupts simplistic or stigmatizing views of criminal responsibility, encouraging trauma-informed assessments that consider impaired capacity and diminished culpability due to psychological distress.
- Contextualizes mental health challenges and environmental stressors, such as prior abuse, poverty, substance use, and community violence, which increase vulnerability to criminal involvement.
- Supports understanding of post-traumatic symptoms like dissociation and PTSD, showing how these conditions can persist before, during, and after offenses, affecting recollection and behavior.