Customer Reviews

Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children (Library of Contemporary Thought)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Jonathan Kellerman, best known for his psychological fiction is actually a highly qualified child psychologist.

In the non-fiction examination of Violence in Children or "Savage Spawn" as Kellerman titles his work, readers are offered a no nonsense overview of some of the salient issues at play when discussing the contribuors to childhood violence.

Having worked with Juvenile Delinquent Adolescents in a residential treatment center for five years of my career, I feel that I have some good insights into the issues Kellerman addresses. Kellerman is appropriately realistic in the need to acknowledge that there is no causation that can be attributed to only nature or only nurture in the causation of male childhood violence. He believes, and I agree, that we have to factor both of these causative contributors together in order to get some insight into violence in kids.

I am reluctant to be particularly ready to dismiss the psychiatric role in the prevention and treatment of violence through the treatment of faulty neurotransmitters in the brain. The reality is that millions of people have been helped by the new class of drugs known as SSRI's. Further, Jonathan Kellerman's truly subjective bias against the psychiatric profession on a wholesale scale is somewhat inappropriate on a professional level and actually inaccurate when dismissed completely in the extent in which Kellerman takes his argument.

Interestingly or perhaps more ironically, Kellerman is an obvious supporter of treatment of kids with the drug Ritalin -- a psychiatric drug -- which is particularly controversial, certainly overprescribed and questionably effective in a large majority of cases of children under its influence. However, Kellerman has clearly recommended this drug for many of his young patients and often cites his observations of its effectiveness.

I support Kellerman's practical advice that what we do not need to see are blue ribbon commissions to study childhood violence. He accurately represents the fact that much is known about problems in children and monies could be better utilized in direct education for kids and even more importantly, parents. We don't need to wait for violence to intervene with children. Early intervention when warning signs are obvious is a very realistic and far underutilized approach to preventing the escalation of patterns of violence in children.

There is much to be said for Kellerman's points about family environments which indirectly give children a poor culture for the development of appropriate values. In working with Juvenile Offenders, I often found that the healthiest members of a kid's family was the kid himself -- the one who got into trouble and was removed from the home! They got out of extremely dysfunctional situations that aren't always apparent to the casual observer. My own experience with troubled kids left me with far more empathy for them and an often overwhelming impatience -- even anger -- with their families, particularly parents or parent who seemed to be more immature that their adolescent sons.

Kellerman makes some excellent points about the availability of guns to kids and is again quite pragmatic in rejecting convoluted arguments about the "right to bear arms" and the NRA. He simply states he believes guns should not be available or accessible to children until a reasonable age -- similar to our approach to driver's licenses and alcohol. Five and Six year old kids should not be around guns! And, sadly, too often, they are!

Kellerman does an excellent job of explaining the difference between psychotic behavior and psychopathology (the primary group considered to be the main perpetrators of the most heinous crimes.) Offically known in the psychiatric profession as those suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSMIV, or earlier as Sociopathology, Kellerman makes a strong case that it is in this group we find our most serious offenders. He effectively characterizes sub-sets or types of psychopaths and recognizes that there is indeed such a thing as "evil."

I believe Kellerman becomes unnessarily caught up in briefly citing statistical analyses of childhoood violence. However, boiled down, he makes his point that we can't simply accept one causative factor in seeking the roots of violence.

I was extremely disappointed that Kellerman failed to address effects of suburban, homogeneous living, and its potential danger for kids, nor the entire -- very important area -- of low self esteem as causative contributors to childhood violence.

Kellerman also fails to discuss the impact of the peer violence in the vebal and physical abuse suffered at the hands of peers by those kids who were "different" or issues of the unacceptability of difference of any kind -- behavioral, interests, sexuality, etc. -- and the violence too often present in the peer pressure which lets the kid who is -- in any way different -- know that he is a "reject" or "freak" in the eyes of his peer age group. Aren't some of these kinds of issues extremely significant in the ignition of unexpected retaliatiatory violence. We witnessed some of this type of retaliation in the selectiveness with which the two killers in the Columbine massacre chose who was to live and who they wanted to see dead. Intolerance of difference is often a message clearly delivered in varying forms of violence -- mostly verbal, not atypically verbal, but also commonly physical.

Overall, I believe Kellerman's text is a worthy brief overview of some of the major areas to be covered in really examining and learning more about how we should anticipate and prevent violence in children. He provides a very fine bibliography for the interested person who wishess to go beyond his 120 page work on this very urgent and real problem in our country at the close of this century.

This is not a book about troubled children in the usual sense of that phrase, meaning children who are who are angry, lonely and unhappy and who act on those feelings in destructive ways, such as getting into fights or taking drugs. This is about a much smaller group: children who are so psychologically damaged that they simply don't experience the normal range of human feelings. Troubled teens might hide their anxieties behind a facade of cool contempt for others; but for child psychopaths, Kellerman suggests, there's nothing behind the facade. They see other people not as fellow human beings, but as objects to be manipulated or dominated for their own ends.

Kellerman's most interesting hypothesis here is that such children have not been produced by a general decline in moral or social values; instead, he postulates that this psychological abnormality has probably occurred in a small percentage of the population of every human society that has existed. (This certainly would explain why the vast majority of children who are teased or bullied at school, or who watch violent movies and play violent computer games, etc., are nevertheless nice kids who grow into kind, decent adults.) The main difference now is that adolescent psychopaths on a killing spree have access to more sophisticated, efficient weapons than existed in the past.

As other reviewers have suggested, some of the interventions and remedies Kellerman suggests don't seem feasible. That doesn't necessarily mean he's wrong; it's possible that our only other option is to endure periodic school shootings (though that's certainly an upsetting thought). I do think Kellerman might have dwelt more on the question of diagnosis; he's good at describing his own (rare) encounters with child psychopaths and how they differed from his (much more numerous) encounters with troubled boys, but it's unclear whether someone with less experience, training and sensitivity would be able to see and articulate the distinction. Still, the distinction itself, as Kellerman delineates it, is persuasive; and it might at least keep educators and school psychologists from lumping every unpopular, unhappy kid who likes to play shooter games or set off bottle rockets (which is a whole lot of kids) in with mass murderers (which, despite the seeming frequency of school shootings, is a very small number of kids). In any case, this is interesting reading for anyone curious to know how evil arises in individual human beings.

Jonathan Kellerman's comments on NPR's "Fresh Air" convinced me to buy this book. While it was a good introduction to the nature of psychopathy, I found most of his policy proposals politically infeasible, at best.

Admittedly, the issue of what to do with budding psychopaths is a difficult question, but Kellerman's suggestion to aggressively place such children in orphanages (or foster homes) rather than waiting to send them to prisons (or cemeteries) begs challenging legal, moral, and social questions that Kellerman all but ignores. He also, naively presumes that such facilities could reasonably be staffed by people as compassionate, dedicated, and insightful as he. Most mental health care workers I know would avoid dealing with such difficult charges.

Similarly, his views on the importance of gun control (which I wholly agree with) suggest that Kellerman remains surprisingly ignorant about the strength of the gun lobby in this country.

I do believe that Kellerman may have a chance to diminish the hyperbole around the relative importance of violence in the media, if he can teach enough people that correlation is not causation.

I hope books like Kellerman's spark some debate in the upcoming election year, but I doubt many of his ideas will be achievable in the foreseeable future.

From the flavor of some of the past reviews, I wonder if the reviewers bothered to read the whole book...and read it carefully. It appears that a couple might have just skimmed through and this is no way to give any piece of literature a worthwhile critique.

Yes, Kellerman is a bit sensationalistic in his wording but do you think Average Joe would read the book if it read like a research paper?
No, certain of Kellerman's Utopian suggestions are not feasible. He says so. I guess certain readers missed this.
No, Kellerman's book does not offer a wealth of solutions towards treating violent youth. Read the back cover. This publication was not intended to offer treatments. It is clear that the purpose of the book was to present both sides of the "nature vs. nurture" argument and then to show how both play a role in creating the "savage spawn". Kellerman's point is that the issue is not cut and dried and the solutions are not simple because the resources to help these kids, simply isn't available.

He does toss in some supposed remedies at the end but these are the type of commentary one often hears from laypeople who think that we can just apply "quick fixes" and voila no more violent children. He wants readers to know that these options are not viable. He clearly states, "This comprehensive approach remains, sadly, an ideal". He does state, rather emphatically, however, that behavior modification is the key and closes with this reminder.

I disagree that it was sensationalistic to comment on the "young guns" of the West and show how we as a society tend to glorify violence. We do. Pointing out that many of these famous gunslingers of the past were children when they began their killing spree was not to sensationalize. Kellerman clearly points out that we are mistaken in assuming that it is a "new thing" for youngsters to go on murderous rampages, and that we need only to look into our history to see this.

As an educator and counselor of young offenders, I found the this book interesting and enlightening. If one goes beyond the basic scope of the book and checks Kellerman's references, one will find that much research exists to support what he says.

I agree with his statement, "Boys will be boys but violent boys will be dangerous." It's a wake up call to America that as he states, "..if we catch antisocial kids early enough..they will be amenable to treatment". We need to stop ignoring the behavior and making excuses for it.

So...all in all, is the book worth a 5? Yes...if one realizes that Kellerman accomplished his objective of showing both sides of a nature/nurture argument. I do believe, however, that he leaves the readers a bit cold by not offering us at least some parting references to publications or institutions that offer more information as to treatment options.

Kellerman's reflections on youth violence are refreshing and sure to be controversial since he makes a recommendation that cold-blooded teen murderers should be locked up until they die. He also recommends that prevention efforts be focused on identifying and treating those children who appear to have the highest risk for going off on a rampage. While this is not a full scholarly treatment of the subject of youth violence, it considers many theories about how children become violent, making it superior in my view to the unitary causation theory (our methods of socializing boys) presented in William Pollack's Real Boys.

Though I'm only halfway through the essay, I send kudos to Dr. Kellerman for his bold and unapologetic stance on a difficult and controversial subject. Those that have not peered into the eyes (or file--or better yet, have not seen crime scene photos, then spoken with "the nice fellow who couldn't have possibly done what was in those pictures, or if he did, he was 'temporarily insane'") of a psychopath (of any age) will think him curt, dismissive, and with a political agenda. Those that have, will immediately feel relief that they are not alone in their mixed feelings of fear (of what the "person" is capable of doing), guilt (for feeling the way they do), and impotence (regarding how to inform others of their findings).

Though somewhat technical for lay personnel (even the erudite may need a dictionary), his coverage of psychopathy--a term we're afraid to utilize in America--is right on target, especially the history of the word and distinction between "psychopath" and "psychotic." Further, his willingness to discuss same in terms as being identifiable in children as young as three is, albeit chilling, an unfortunate reality of human existance.

As a psychologist for a state parole board who also does evaluations with inner-city children, I was impressed by Dr. Kellerman's use of recent (and older, yet strong) research on the topic. Though he is a popular fiction author, he appears not to have lost his ability to write "scientific" articles. [I primarily evaluate true psychopaths and feel qualified to give Dr. Kellerman such a rating--through my experience and visceral identification with what he says.]

Those that work with offenders (and other non-institutionalized psychopaths) should read this treatise. It will shock people that subscribe to "man-is-basically-kind" notions. However, it will also shed light on the unfortunate fact that "you're-not-guilty-of-what-you-can-get-away-with." (Especially if there are no surviving victim/witnesses to tell.)

Jonathan Kellerman's "Savage Spawn; Reflections on Violent Children" will now become the text I initially refer to Teaching colleagues, Administration, and Support Personal including Guidance Officers, Behavioural Advisers, and Speech Language Pathologists etc, when I wish to highlight concerns about some of the "Kids at Risk" I work with.

Although I may not concur with his thoughts on the effect of violent media upon our young, I love the straight-forward "no nonsense" approach he brings to the discussion and presentation of research on kids with Psychopathic tendencies. The citations in his Bibliography will be particularly helpful for further exploration, and his inclusion of the work of people such as Yochelson and Samenow, also heartened me.

I would love to read / see / hear where his headspace is nowadays.

This is a short, easy to read book. The author, a child psychologist and best-selling mystery author, pulls no punches in his opinion: Violent juvenile offenders need to be locked up for the better part of forever. If you want a book that details hideous crimes, skip this. Kellerman is not interested in glorifying gruesomeness. The book is exactly what the title says: Reflections on violent children.

I read it because I love Kellerman's fiction work, and because I trust his point of view both as a psychologist and as a man with a fine moral compass.

As to the causes of violence in children and teens, he does a good job of detailing the most recent and accurate thought in the nature vs. nurture debate. And he is not without compassion, but he takes into account the protection of society first, then the welfare of youthful offenders.

As sensational as the title of this book is, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Recommended by a child psychologist friend, it was a great intellectual study of violent children (and adults). I especially enjoyed the topic of media violence. I was surprised that Columbine was not included, although other school-related shootings were used as case studies, albeit not in depth. Very interesting and topical. Different from what I normally read, but I'm glad I did.

I was living in Jonesboro, Arkansas when Andrew Golden & Mitchell Johnson opened fire at their middle school. It was like, this sort of thing isn't supposed to happen in MY town. And they were only 11 and 13 years old! This little book was written shortly after the shooting as a sort of venting mechanism and I was curious to read Dr. Kellerman's take on it all.

He's very blunt about the fact that some people are just evil (or psychopathic) and this evil (or psychopathy) can manifest itself as early as two years old. There's no way to cure this, but if it is caught early enough, it can be controlled and that's where the system is failing. It's very straight forward, but like I said, very ventful too. He explains why the system doesn't work and has lots of ideal ideas of how to fix it, but he admits the world is not an ideal place and over all, we do the best we can.

I'm a fan of Dr. Kellerman's novels and I did notice the germ of some characters in the case examples he cites here. Pretty scary stuff.

So, no, this little volume doesn't provide any earth shattering cure-alls, but it is refreshing to hear a professional admit that there are no simple answers. I found it very interesting.