Last Resort – A Risk Factor

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 29th Jan 2024

The Virginia Tech active shooter, Seung-Hoi Cho, like many other killers who engage in rampage killings in educational settings left a “manifesto”. In it he stated, “You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.” Cho like many other mass killers, believed that he had run out of options and there was only one left to him i.e., to engage in a rampage killing. It would be easy to view this explanation as the work of someone trying to justify actions...Click To Read More

Mass Shootings in 2023

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 22nd Jan 2024

It is reasonable to assume that crime statistics can and are manipulated to some degree, in order for police departments to appear to be meeting certain goals, such as a reduction in violent crime. There are simple ways of doing this e.g., by classifying a street robbery as a theft/act of larceny, a violent offense can be categorized as a non-violent one etc. This is why criminologists and crime analysts often use homicides as a corroborating indicator to whether crime rates are falling or rising, as it is difficult to reclassify a death as something else. A strange thing happened...Click To Read More

Entryway Behaviors

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 15th Jan 2024

One of the concerns that most people have when dealing with potentially violent situations is the fear that doing something will only escalate the incident. This fear or concern exists for security professionals as well. In a video obtained by the Portland Press Herald, concerning a discussion between Sagadahoc County Sheriff Seargent Aaron Skolfield, and Army Reserve Captain Jeremy Reamer, there is concern expressed about attempting to seize Robert Card’s firearms under Maine’s “yellow flag” law, as it was felt doing so may escalate Card’s behaviors and actions. A few weeks after the conversation, Robert Card carried out a mass...Click To Read More

The Dark Triad

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 8th Jan 2024

In recent years there has been a considerable amount of research on the Dark Triad (DT) and its role in predicting aggression and violence. The Dark Triad is made up of three socially aversive personality types. One of these is a personality disorder recognized by the DSM, i.e., narcissism, with the others being psychopathy, that although not recognized explicitly within the DSM is clinically definable and measurable (and falls under/within the DSM’s anti-social personality disorder), and Machiavellianism, a less well researched/established personality trait, but still scientifically measurable, that was first defined in the 1960’s by psychologists, Richard Christie and Florence...Click To Read More

If, When & When Not to Apologize

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 1st Jan 2024

Sometimes our natural reaction in a socially awkward situation, where there is a dispute/conflict, is to apologize; especially if we have been brought up to be overly polite i.e., politeness being stressed when we were children as something we should never fail at – meaning that we’d rather be polite when we don’t have to than take the chance that we don’t need to etc. However, apologizing won’t always diffuse an angry person and in certain instances may in fact escalate the incident/interaction, rather than calm it down. If we have a habit of always apologizing, especially when the other...Click To Read More