Triggers of Brutality: Unraveling the Dialectics of Extreme Violence through an Epidemiological Criminology Lens

This chapter initially aimed to explore the public health responses to violent crime. In our writing journey, we sought to guide the reader along a path where public health and violence intersect. However, our circumstances changed, requiring deeper reflection, where we were caught in a cyclical pattern, revisiting familiar topics in new variations, yet needing to illuminate and rethink how public health responses connect (or need to connect) not only to violent behavioral analysis but more specifically, to extreme violent behaviors. While the landscape is beginning to expand, thanks to emerging books like the one you are reading now, the broader discourse across publishing outlets (e.g., books, articles, essays, journals, news reports, blogs, and various other mediums) still lacks or is in search of new and emerging ideas, thoughts, and theories that clearly articulate this nexus between public health responses and crime, a unique distinction to be shared in this chapter. The literature on this subject is growing significantly, highlighting the intersection between public health and epidemiology and criminal justice and criminology. This is evidenced by the emerging theory and paradigm of epidemiological criminology as demonstrated in works by Potter & Akers (2013); Waltermaurer & Akers,(2013); Rowhani-Rahbar et al.,(2024) among many other scholars and practitioners. Yet, this intersection is merely the proverbial “tip of the spear” in our quest to understand what pushes individuals beyond violence to extreme violent brutality and what factors pull these same individuals into extreme acts of violent behavior (Akers et al., 2012, p. 4). Our goal, ideally, is to introduce novel insights and other perspectives, regarding health and violent crime, and determine which public health and violence prevention programs can effectively reduce, eliminate, or more scientifically understand these brutal behaviors. This chapter delves into the depths of how violent acts might have evolved into what we now term “extreme violence,” manifesting in places and contexts previously thought immune to or shielded from such brutality.