Listening to Killers: Lessons Learned from My Twenty Years as a Psychological Expert Witness in Murder Cases

by James Garbarino

Overview

Listening to Killers offers an inside look at twenty years' worth of murder files from Dr. James Garbarino, a leading expert psychological witness who listens to killers so that he can testify in court. The author offers detailed accounts of how killers travel a path that leads from childhood innocence to lethal violence in adolescence or adulthood. He places the emotional and moral damage of each individual killer within a larger scientific framework of social, psychological, anthropological, and biological research on human development. By linking individual cases to broad social and cultural issues and illustrating the social toxicity and unresolved trauma that drive some people to kill, Dr. Garbarino highlights the humanity we share with killers and the role of understanding and empathy in breaking the cycle of violence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520282872
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/12/2015
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dr. James Garbarino holds the Maude C. Clarke Chair in Humanistic Psychology and was Founding Director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago. He was formerly Professor of Human Development at Cornell University, and he is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He has served as an adviser to the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, the National Institute for Mental Health, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the FBI. He is the author of Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Becoming an Expert Witness

Part I Getting Close to Killers
1 The Concept of Choice in the Criminal Justice System
2 Keeping Killers inside Our Circle of Caring
3 Moral Damage: Growing Up with a War Zone Mentality
4 Emotional Damage: The Consequences of Unresolved Trauma

Part II The American Way of Killing
5 “If You’re Old Enough to Do the Crime, You’re Old Enough to Do the Time”
6 Tales of Rehabilitation, Transformation, and Redemption
7 Guns Don’t Kill People—People with Guns Kill People
8 Making Sense of the Senseless: Understanding and Preventing Killing in America

Appendix: Zagar’s Model
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Garbarino is a master storyteller and a graceful, elegant writer who brings the complex science to life in dramatically rendered personal histories. It is a narrative style that makes for clear science and riveting reading.  Be prepared to change your mind. I did."

St. Lawrence University Alumni Magazine - Dan Clayton

"Garbarino's knowledge, compassion, insight, and unmatched experience provide us with an amazing opportunity to learn the path that lead children to violence. . . . Please – buy this book for yourself and for every single person you know. I did."

eA Risk Management Group - Josh Eudowe

"Jim is a master storyteller and a graceful, elegant writer who brings complex science to life in dramatically rendered personal histories. It is a narrative style that makes for clear science and riveting reading. Be prepared to change your mind. I did."

St. Lawrence University Alumni Magazine - Daniel Clayton

★ 02/15/2015
Garbarino (Maude C. Clarke Chair in Humanistic Psychology, Loyola Univ., Chicago) is perhaps the preeminent expert on childhood abuse and trauma as formative factors leading to adult violence. He is also an experienced psychological expert witness in murder trials. This inviting investigation expands upon the convincing arguments the author made in 1999's Lost Boys. He introduces the practice of "listening to killers," rather than judging them precipitately. Employing powerful case studies of murderers, Garbarino explores the dark psychological recesses of their pasts and cites the prevalence of horrific physical and sexual abuse in their histories. Even more poignant, though, is his comparison of these offenders to children who grow up in a war zone. This sort of unceasing, pervasive trauma generates dissociation and other defense mechanisms that may save their lives but destroy their psyches in the process. Thus, as expert witness, Garbarino can introduce valid psychological evidence as a mitigating factor for sentencing purposes. VERDICT This book should become the definitive text on the subject. Indispensable for readers of works such as Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery.—Lynne Maxwell, West Virginia Univ. Coll. of Law Lib., Morgantown

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