“This guy got really mad, and he didn’t know how to control himself. People think I helped him.” “Did you?”

Kat Chandler’s short film, “Black Metal,” is getting its big break at the Sundance Film Festival this month. In just a few minutes, the film explores a gruesome murder loosely tied to the music of a heavy-metal band. Only this time, it looks at the situation from the perspective of the musician whose work is linked to the killing. It’s a sensitive, emotional take on the topic, and doesn’t answer very many questions, leaving the viewer to reflect on whether this common scapegoat is really part of the problem.

Given my perspective on the topic, I have mixed feelings about Chandler’s film. On the one hand, I like the suggestion that this musician is baffled and upset by the blame, and the fact that the film mostly makes that blame appear misplaced. I also like the fact that it doesn’t overtly preach an answer; being too heavy-handed would be less effective. But I wonder whether this film is going to change the mind of someone who is already convinced that extreme music directly encourages its listeners to commit violence. I hope so, but part of me doubts it.

Corey Mitchell, a true-crime writer and metalhead who consulted on the film, said this on Invisible Oranges:

Just to be clear, I would not have taken the gig if Kat’s intention was to declare metal responsible for violent crimes.

What do you think the film says? And what do you think of the way in which it says it?

Expert: Youth violence is complex, media doesn’t cause violence, reporting on it is tough

A mural in Chicago’s Logan Square. Photo by Flickr user Zol87.

This morning, Poynter.org hosted a chat with Carl Bell, acting director of the Institute for Juvenile Research and a professor in the University of Illinois’ Department of Psychiatry and in the School of Public Health, on how journalists can do better when covering youth violence. The chat was prompted by recent coverage of a wave of youth-involved shootings in Chicago.

Most of the time, Backward Messages focuses on all the things that don’t cause youth violence, even though various sources have claimed they do. Things like violent video games, the occult, and heavy-metal music. I also like to look at the ways reporters get off track when reporting on youth crime — and the ways that misreporting leads us to look for the wrong causes.

So when I heard Bell was co-hosting the chat with Poynter.org managing editor Mallary Tenore today, I jumped in to listen, and to ask questions. Here are some of the highlights:

Carl Bell: I have been studying violence since 1976 and I have learned there are several types of violence – predatory violence, interpersonal altercation violence, gang related violence, etc. There is also mob violence, hate crime violence, violence by mentally ill, systemic violence, etc.

Mallary Tenore: As you’ve studied these various types of violence, what have you noticed about journalists’ coverage of them?

Carl Bell: It has been my experience that journalist regularly do not differentiate these types of violence very well and they mostly get portrayed as predatory violence.

Mallary Tenore: That’s interesting … why do you think that is?

Carl Bell: I think that people are often confused with complexity. … I think journalists have a difficult time. They have to report on complex issues, but keep them simple and they have to get past the editor.

Mallary Tenore: Yes, time can definitely a factor.

Carl Bell: Unfortunately, much that is published or reported on has to have a great hook, i.e. something that appeals to the flight, fight, or freeze response in the brain, not the thinking, discernment, wise part of the brain. So, there is a lot of distortion in the media.

Beth Winegarner: Carl, on the topic of mass murder/school shootings, why do you think reporters so often make reference to a youth’s music tastes or video-game habits when describing youth perpetrators of mass violence?

Carl Bell: There are so many ideas that people have for the causes of violence. When we did the Surgeon General’s report on youth violence we learned, based on science, that many of the things we think cause violence do not cause violence at all.

Beth Winegarner: That’s an interesting response, since many people still refer to the Surgeon General’s report. What things mentioned in it don’t cause violence after all?

Carl Bell: The reality is that risk factors are not predictive factors, due to protective factors. So, a lot of kids want violent videos or play violent video games, but the homicide rates are lower than the suicide rates (both are rare), so things protect kids.

To read the full chat, see the Poynter.org and click at the bottom to read the transcript.

While we focus on “Satanic” angle, killer walks free

Was Arlis Perry killed in 1974 by a Satanic cult in Stanford University’s Memorial Church? Some still think so. Photo by Flickr user daviduweb.

Rumors of murderous Satanic cults always make for a compelling scary story, even if they can’t be proven. Maybe that’s why the Great Plains Examiner has a new article today about Arlis Perry, who was killed almost 40 years ago in a church at Stanford University. Her murder remains unsolved, which always stokes the fires of the imagination.

Scant details have led people to pursue the “Satanic cult” theory:

An autopsy later revealed that Arlis Perry was killed by a blow from an ice pick punched just behind her ear. The way she was laying in the chapel led detectives to believe it was a ritualistic killing.

“The way she was laying” is pretty vague, but there are speculative sketches online, likening Perry’s position to the shake of the unicursal hexagram — which, by the way, isn’t Satanic; in fact, it’s used to protect against evil.

Also? The ice pick isn’t a particularly “Satanic” tool.

Reading through the history of the case, it’s a pretty big mental stretch to call some of the players — if, indeed, they were players — “Satanic.” Speculation in this California murder suggests it could have been the work of David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz, or someone else involved with the Process Church, or there’s even a hint that the Holy Order of MANS was involved somehow. There were also rumors that Perry had attempted to convert some members of a North Dakota Satanic cult to Christianity… and this is why one of them tailed her to California and killed her?

I’m not familiar with any cases committed by Berkowitz in California — not to mention that he recanted most of his “Satanic” claims after he was jailed. The Process Church is only associated with Satan because he’s part of their beliefs — but that doesn’t mean they’re killers. And despite what it says in the Great Plains Examiner story, the HOOM folks didn’t wear upside-down crosses; they were a humble order working with Christian ideas. That detail alone makes me question the validity of the rest of the reporting — and it should make other readers doubt it, too.

Perry had a fight with her new husband the night she died. After the fight, she walked to Stanford, where she prayed in the church and was found dead a few hours later. Apparently later DNA analysis failed to yield a suspect. I have to assume that her husband was investigated — after all, 44 percent of female homicide victims in New York State, to take a random example, were killed by their partners. Still, it was more than likely the killer was someone she knew — and someone local.

The problem with such coverage — despite the fact that it’s speculative, filled with errors, and not very trustworthy — is that it leads readers to think in a particular way about a crime. Readers are potential witnesses; do they remember something? Did they see something suspicious that might be related to the crime? If they’re led to believe a certain context for Perry’s death, they might discount something they saw if it doesn’t fit that context. There’s a reason juries are selected, in part, based on how “tainted” they are by news reports — because such coverage can introduce a bias that can lead the wrong person to be convicted of a crime.

As long as people think a Satanic cult killed her — and there’s no evidence this Satanic cult exists outside people’s imaginations — her killer will remain free.

Barring faith from criminal trials: new ways to protect minority faiths from defamation

What does Druidry have to do with homicide? Absolutely nothing — which is why a judge has forbidden any mention of an Illinois man’s (not pictured) faith during his upcoming trial. Photo by Flickr user owenski.

In recent weeks, the news has been flooded with criminal cases where the alleged perpetrator belonged to a minority faith.

In Ohio, a couple has been arrested for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old family member. The male half of the couple, named Daniel Hess, allegedly told police that the assault was part of the Wiccan faith.

In Chicago, 54-year-old Joseph Nerone claims he stabbed his 84-year-old mother to death, and that he was possessed by Satan when the attack took place.

And in South Africa, two young men who set a teenage girl on fire, allegedly as part of a “Satanic ritual,” were sentenced to 17 years each in jail.

It’s worth saying that Wiccan practices don’t involve nonconsensual or illegal sex, and that Satanic practices don’t involve murder.

And it’s also worth saying that the mere mention of minority faiths in the same sentence with a crime suggests that the two are related. Most of the time, they aren’t.

So it’s interesting that, in Illinois, a judge has ruled that Christopher Vaughn’s Druidic beliefs may not be mentioned in the courtroom during his murder trial. Vaughn is accused of shooting his wife and three children in 2007, and has remained in jail awaiting trial since then.

The move to strike mention of his faith from the courtroom was made by Vaughn’s defense attorney, who argued that such discussions could prevent Vaughn from receiving a fair trial.

That’s an interesting approach — but the correct one. Even though Druids are peaceful, and their practices center on the veneration of nature, the jury is likely unfamiliar with those facts. That ignorance can quickly turn to discomfort or fear, coloring their views of Vaughn. (However, Vaughn made posts on a Druid listserv saying he wanted to live on his own in the Canadian wilderness, and the judge has allowed such posts to be admitted in the courtroom, though likely without mention of where they were posted).

Divorcing a defendant’s faith from his or her criminal actions, both inside and outside the courtroom, can protect both those on trial and those who practice the same faith. If this could happen in every trial — because faith is essentially never the motivation for violent criminal activity — as a culture we might stop associating beliefs we don’t understand with frightening acts.

This week, journalism site Poynter.org published a piece I wrote offering tips to journalists who are assigned to write articles where crime and minority faith overlap. There are many ways of making sure faith and violent crime aren’t falsely and unfairly connected; journalism reform is one, and barring mentions of faith in the courtroom such as in Vaughn’s case is another.

What others can you think of?

Fear leads to anger — and goth-bashing

Thirteen-year-old Casey-Lyanne Kearney was stabbed to death. Her accused killer has been called a “goth.” Not likely.

On Valentine’s Day, Casey-Lynne Kearney was crossing Elmfield Park in Doncaster, England when a woman allegedly stabbed her and left her to die.

Police, who called the assault random and isolated, arrested 26-year-old Hannah Bonser, a Doncaster resident, for Kearney’s murder and and for possession of two knives. Her trial is scheduled to begin July 2.

Even before Bonser appeared in court to defend herself, neighbors described her to the UK’s sensationalism-prone Sun as a goth:

… neighbours in Doncaster described her as having the look of “a Goth” — sporting dark hair and dark-rimmed glasses. She was said to be “addicted” to computer games.

One resident, who asked not to be identified, said: “The police were round here and they took some boxes of stuff from her flat. She was like a rocker, gothic type. She was very quiet.”

Talking to the neighbors is one of the oldest tricks in the reporter’s book. There are a variety of good reasons for this practice, but what neighbors say must always be taken with a grain of salt — these days, many people don’t know their neighbors particularly well, or may even have conflicts with them that drive them to say things they shouldn’t.

Not only are those descriptions very vague and patched-together, they don’t really describe an actual goth. (And, you can see in the court link, Bonser doesn’t look particularly goth.) Most of the time, it takes more than dark hair and “dark-rimmed glasses” to identify a goth. (Also, nice how the slipped in the “video games” angle too, eh?”)

More than that, though, these flimsy descriptions reinforce the false idea that goths are a remotely violent group. This idea, popularized after the Columbine High School killings in Colorado in 1999 (committed by two young men who were also falsely identified as goths), has been tough to shake. People outside the goth culture see the black hair, theatrical makeup and clothing, piercings and studs, and assume their fear of such an off-putting appearance must mean goths are aggressive. In fact, the most aggressive thing about goths is probably their appearance. Religioustolerance.org notes, “Goths tend to be non-violent, pacifistic, passive, and tolerant.”

Often to a fault. In fact, goths are much more often the victims of violence, as in the cases of Sophie Lancaster and Melody McDowell, both of whom were coincidentally assaulted in England.

In some ways, the comments made by Bonser’s neighbors constitute another kind of attack on goths — and reveal the layers of misunderstanding and discomfort that exist against them in modern society.

When someone on UK Yahoo Answers asked why goths are so stigmatized, another responded:

Unfortunately a lot of people (especially those who live in small towns & don’t have a lot of life experience, or even those of a low level of intelligence) will always feel threatened by something that is outside their own experience and/or they do not understand.

Or, to quote a certain wise green muppet, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

When will we stop being so afraid of one another?

Occupy, violent video games didn’t kill couple

Susan Poff and Robert Kamin were murdered in Oakland, California. Police say their adopted teenage son confessed to the crime.

When an Oakland couple, involved in helping low-income communities, were found strangled and stuffed into the back of their PT Cruiser, police didn’t immediately suspect their 15-year-old adopted son.

However, after spending some time at the home, the teen — whose name is not being released — admitted to the officers that he killed Susan Poff and Robert Kamin. There doesn’t seem to be any clear motive in the attack. Can there be, when the child is 15 and has a good relationship with his parents, according to all who knew them?

Still, the press always looks for an explanation. That’s what reporters do. They try to answer: Who? What? Where? When? Why?

That may explain why one reporter tossed this line into a San Francisco Chronicle article Monday:

“The boy’s infatuation with violent video games was starting to give his uncle pause.”

Wait a minute here.

To back up, Poff and Kamin’s co-workers said the couple was recently having some arguments with their son about the amount of time he was spending at the Occupy Oakland encampment. However, those arguments didn’t sound like the fodder for homicide, they said.

So if those disagreements weren’t enough to fuel the killings, violent video games might have been?

According to the boy’s uncle?

Here’s a boy who, by outside appearances, was doing exactly what teens need to do: he was going to school, he was engaging in hobbies (Occupy Oakland, video games, karate — where he’d obtained his black belt), he had attentive parents.

What we don’t know — what nobody is talking about — is the boy’s birth parents, and what legacy of issues he may have, either due to genetics or to early abandonment. It’s true that plenty of kids overcome mental-health issues or psychological trauma, and don’t kill anyone. But for those kids who do kill, these can be primary factors.

We know video games save lives. We know they don’t make kids aggressive.

So why did the reporter mention it?

Who led child-rapist and killer Joshua Komisarjevsky astray? It wasn’t Satan.

Would Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters be alive if Joshua Komisarjevsky had been parented differently? Probably.

If you’ve heard of Joshua Komisarjevsky, chances are good it’s because he was recently convicted of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, Michaela, 11, and Hayley, 17, in Cheshire, Connecticut, in 2007. He awaits a sentence of either life in prison or the death penalty for the crimes, which he committed with accomplice Steven Hayes. In addition to taking their lives and then setting the bodies on fire, Komisarjevsky also raped Michaela.

Komisarjevsky’s life story is a case study in how fears of Satanism and the occult can get in the way of seeking proper treatment for an obviously ill teenager. His parents and others had many chances to intervene, to save not only Komisarjevsky’s life but the lives of Hawke-Petit and her daughters.

The 31-year-old was adopted when he was 2 weeks old. Early photos show him with his mother, Jude, who is delighted by the boy in her lap. Later on, the Komisarjevskys took in foster children, and one of them — a 15-year-old named Scott — abused the other kids, including 5-year-old Joshua. Later on, Joshua turned this abuse on his sister, which his parents refused to report to the police.

By the time Joshua was in his teens, his psychological state was beginning to break down. He developed a close friendship with a man in his church. Also during this time, Joshua allegedly joined a “Satanic cult.” The church friend helped “rescue” him from a ritual held at someone’s home, but shortly afterward, Joshua said he began hearing voices and suffering night terrors. But neither his family nor his church friends sought outside help:

But the cult continued to have a negative effect on Komisarjevsky, according to testimony Thursday by Eric Perry, a staff supervisor at a Christian boys’ home called the Fold in Vermont in 1996.

Perry’s two weekly reports on Komisarjevsky were shown on the courtroom screen. “Having trouble sleeping,” Perry wrote. “He hears voices saying, ‘Kill yourself.’ He is seeing objects in his room that he believes are related to his prior inclusion in Satanic cults.”

Perry also wrote that prayer and reassurance Komisarjevsky was loved by God and the staff at the Fold “seems to be the only solution to his night terrors.”

Even if Joshua had been part of a Satanic group — and it’s not clear to me what was going on here — there’s no reason that such belonging would trigger a mental-health breakdown. Just like any religious organization, Satanism attracts a variety of people for a variety of reasons, including those with mental-health issues. It’s neither a cause or a cure for those issues.

As a teen, he kept bomb-making supplies in his room as well as razor blades, the latter for a planned suicide attempt.

Here is a boy who is obviously crying out for help. But his support network believed, for whatever reason, that prayer and faith were the answers to his problems. Obviously, they weren’t.

I’m not here to blame any particular faith on what happened to Komisarjevsky — or particularly to his victims. I think the problem lies with the type of people his parents were, not the faith or denomination they belonged to. I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not they loved Joshua and his adopted/foster siblings. They had the heart to take these kids in. Beyond that, we know very little. What we do know is that Joshua was very sick, and we know that without treatment, this kind of sickness does not get better.

What happened to Hawke-Petit and her daughters was entirely preventable. It could have been prevented by Joshua Komisarjevsky’s parents, by his church elders, by others in his life. They made the wrong choices. Ultimately, the actions were Joshua’s — and for that reason he’s the right person to stand trial — but I doubt he would have committed these crimes without everything that came before.

It takes more than black clothes to make a killer

“Something wasn’t right about her. She was always dressed in black and wore t-shirts with Satanic symbols on them,” said a neighbor of a 21-year-old Swiss woman accused of killing her father. Picture by Flickr user Horia Varlan.

In Switzerland, a young woman stands accused of stabbing her father to death — and seriously injuring her mother when she tried to intervene. Andrea S., 21, hadn’t lived with her parents for years, but apparently told friends she wanted her father dead. No one thought she was serious, even though she also said he had verbally abused her for years.

Andrea S. also allegedly kept a “death list” of people she planned to kill, friends said, and she once made death threats against a teacher.

Did anyone talk to Andrea S. about her feelings? Did they seek help or talk to the police about her behavior? It doesn’t sound like it.

And so, on Tuesday morning, she rode her bicycle parents’ home in Beringen, in Schaffhausen, toting a kitchen knife with her. She entered the apartment with her own key and stabbed her 52-year-old father who was sleeping on the couch. Andrea S. has been arrested for the attack, and has allegedly confessed to it.

According to statistics, the most common reason young people kill their parents is abuse. It’s hard to imagine why anyone would suspect other reasons why Andrea S. would have taken her father’s life.

And yet, they did. News outlets said acquaintances and neighbors described Andrea S. this way:

She is considered an introverted individual, prone to angry outbursts and aggression, according to acquaintances and neighbours. She wore black clothing exclusively and had expressed an interest in Satanism on several websites, including on her MySpace page.

“Something wasn’t right about her,” a neighbour told the newspaper Blick. “She was always dressed in black and wore t-shirts with Satanic symbols on them.”

Take a girl who is constantly berated and abused at home. Would she be extroverted? Probably not. Would she be capable of emotional serenity? Possibly, but you wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t. Would you expect her to wear bright, friendly colors and clothes that made her seem approachable? Doubt it.

Sure, “something wasn’t right about her.” She was hurting. Instead, these comments suggest that Andrea’s penchant for black clothes and “Satanic symbols” had anything to do with her reasons for killing.

We’ve seen such suggestions before. The result? Three young men — probably innocent — have spent more time in prison than they spent growing up. If you’re going to accuse, let alone convict, someone of a crime, go with the evidence at hand — and fashion or faith are not evidence. Comments like the ones above can taint the minds of jurors, as well as the general public, who might make similar connections next time they see a black-clad kid they don’t like.

How can we create more sympathy for misfit kids in pentagrams and black clothing? How can we keep them from becoming targets?

Mentally ill killer may be released from German prison; what’s Satan got to do with it?

Daniel and Manuela Ruda, pictured during their 2001 trial. Daniel could soon be released from prison. Photo by ddp’s Kirsten Neumann.

A mentally disturbed man could soon be released from German prison after serving 15 years for the bloody slaying of a friend.

The London Evening Standard reported that Daniel Ruda, 35, will go before a parole board in Germany next week. There, he will find out whether he will be released early for good behavior.

Ruda and his wife, Manuela, were sentenced to prison in early 2002 for the murder of Frank Hackert. The newlyweds allegedly stabbed Hackert a number of times before drinking his blood. Reporters, then and now, latched onto the fact that the Rudas claimed they were vampires. Some, including the Evening Standard’s Allan Hall, have continued to call the couple “Satanic.”

Why?

Well, according to the Telegraph, “they said the devil told them to” kill their friend.

Daniel Ruda, a car parts salesman, and Manuela, had admitted the killing, but said they were not responsible because they were acting on the devil’s orders. “Kill, sacrifice, bring souls,” was how they described the command.

The couple said they had chosen “Hacki”, as they called him, for sacrifice because he was “so funny and would be the perfect court jester for Satan”.

Throughout the trial, the Rudas showed off, appearing in outlandish costumes, flashing their devil-horn signals and threatening witnesses.

In general, people who believe the Devil is telling them to kill someone qualify as psychotic — not Satanic. Fortunately, the judge in this case recognized that, and assigned Daniel and Manuela to different psychiatric units. Since then, Daniel has apparently become the librarian of a prison near Dortmund, Germany. That’s not enough information to tell whether his condition has stabilized. Manuela remains in prison for her participation in the crime.

Unfortunately, the Ruda’s flamboyant behavior during the trial made them poster children for the anti-Satanists, who like to hold up photos (particularly this one of Manuela) of them as proof that Satanism leads to violence and homicide.

Satanism, like just about every other faith, does not endorse, condone, or encourage harming others — let alone killing them. You can argue that if the Rudas didn’t want to be held up as such an example, they shouldn’t have behaved the way they did — either during their crime or during their trial. But how much impulse control and personal responsibility can we expect from two people who are so clearly mentally unbalanced? And what of the press’ responsibility to report in a fair and accurate manner?

Furthering the “Satanic” rallying cry, as the Evening Standard did, does nothing to clarify whether Daniel Ruda is back to good health and safe for release. It also confuses a potentially frightened public into believing that Satanism is to blame for what happened — and that young people who find a home in this particular faith are vulnerable to (or likely to) carry out the same kinds of crimes. This is unfair to Satanists, to the public, and to the parents of teens exploring such faiths.

Do you think Daniel Ruda should be released from jail? What kinds of treatment do you think he should have received during his imprisonment, if any?

Death metal on trial in Billings murder case

Prosecutors in Jeffery Todd Guy’s murder trial say he followed the occult. Or death metal. Whichever makes him look worse.

On March 20, Jeffery Todd Guy allegedly opened fire at the Billings, Montana home of Scott Maxson. Police say he fired his .45-caliber Mac-10 semiautomatic pistol at least six times, killing Maxson. Guy called the police the next morning to report a dead body in the alley behind his house. Two weeks ago, he told a Billings courtroom that he shot the man in self-defense.

In recent articles about Guy’s case, it isn’t clear how — or if — Guy and Maxson knew each other before the incident. These days, prosecutors and defense attorneys are more busy bickering about his personal interests anyway:

[Deputy County Attorney Dave] Carter also said that Guy led a “double life” revolving around his belief in the occult. While his mother and family were unaware of his satanic beliefs, Guy “prominently displayed idols and literature on the subject” in his home, Carter said in court records.

[Public Defender Christopher] Abbott argued that the items in Guy’s home were associated with Guy’s interest in rock music commonly known as “death metal,” which often uses images of Satan and the occult.

There is no connection, Abbott said, between Guy’s interest in music culture and his potential danger to the community.

Well, at least the defense attorney said that Guy’s taste in music has nothing to do with whether or not he committed the crime. But this whole back-and-forth poses a lot of potential problems. Among them:

1. The prosecutor managed to plant the idea that Guy is into the occult, and was somehow “leading a double life” by hiding it from his family. (If these items were openly displayed in his home, why didn’t his family know about them? Did they never visit?) Once again, this links the idea of “the occult” and violence/homicide in the minds of the public.

2. The defense brought up Guy’s interest in death-metal music. Even though the attorney sounds like he intended to make Guy’s music tastes a non-issue, now he has created an association between “death-metal fan” and “man on trial for murder.”

3. The reporter for the Billings Gazette repeated all this in his coverage of the court hearing, without much in the way of explanation. By being suggestive, and by not clarifying, he’s legitimizing what the attorneys are saying.

Meanwhile, as regular readers of this blog know, death-metal music doesn’t make anyone into a killer, nor does an interest in the occult. Whether or not Guy was acting in self-defense remains to be seen. Either way, Guy has a right to like whatever music he likes, and follow whatever faith he likes, without those interests being suspect if he’s ensnared in a criminal trial.

What if Guy had been a fan of opera? Or country music? Do you think it would have come up in court?