Grossman and Hazelwood: a Comparison

Lieutenant colonel Dave Grossman is a widely recognized soldier, scholar and author. He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of human aggression, roots of violence and violent crime. At one point colonel Grossman was a west point professor of psychology and military science who possesses a great experience and knowledge in those fields of studies. He was also an army ranger. This has also exposed him to the different worlds that have greatly improved his knowledge in his new field. As a result he has combined his experiences in all those fields to generate new remarkable contributions in his field of scientific endeavor, “Killology.” (Warrior Science Group, 2000).

Col Grossman is married to Jeanne and is blessed with three sons: John, Eric and Ozzie Joe. He is a life member of Disabled Americans Veterans, Army Ranger, and British Army Staff College Mess, an honorary member of National Tactical Officers Association, Vietnam veterans of America, Association of SWAT Personnel and Georgia Association of Law Enforcement Firearms instructors. It is worth mentioning his membership in International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors; Honor Initiate to Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity and to Order of Omega National Greek Honor Society, PADI certified open water diver and The Retired Officer Association among many others (Warrior Science Group, 2000).

He attended civilian education at FayettevilleStateUniversity in 1977, ColumbusCollege in 1984 and later did his master in education in Counseling Psychology at University of Texas in 1990. In addition to civilian education, Col Grossman also engaged himself in military education in Britain, Panama and the United States of America. He has undergone basic combat training, Infantry Officer's Basic Course, Infantry Mortar Platoon Operations Course, Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare Course, Infantry Officer's Advanced Course and Low Intensity Conflict Course in America. He also underwent Jungle Operations Training Course in panama and British Army Command and Staff Course and airborne training in England. Throughout his course of duty, he has attended different military colleges and schools. These include; Airborne School, XVIII Airborne Corps NCO Academy, Air Assault School, Officer Candidate School, Ranger School, Combined Arms and Services Staff School, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College among others (Warrior Science Group, 2000).

He was an intern counselor at Round Rock Junior High from 1989 to 1990, graduate instructor in the department of counseling education at the University of Texas in 1990; he then joined the United States Military Academy (USMA) as an instructor in the department of behavioral sciences and leadership in 1990. He became an assistant professor in the same institution in 1991 and served in the same department until 1993 when he left for ArkansasStateUniversity as a professor of military science in the department of military science. At the same university, he was also involved in the department of psychology and counseling (Warrior Science Group, 2000).

He has an outstanding career history in the army spanning from 1974, when he joined the Buck Private and Paratrooper, up to his retirement as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. army and as a professor of military science at Arkansas state university, where he was also the chair of military science department from 1974 to his retirement. He acted as a Unit Training Sergeant and Team Leader of the 82^nd Airborne Division in North Carolina from 1975 to1976. He then went on to become the battalion training sergeant in the same airborne division from 1976-1977. After attending the ranger school for an infantry officer basic course for one year, lieutenant colonel Grossman went on to become an infantry platoon and weapons leader as well as an infantry company executive officer for the 9^th Infantry Division for the next two years. It’s in this capacity that he became the Infantry Battalion Adjutant(S-1) from 1980-1981. He then went to Fort Benning, GA, as a student to study the infantry officer advanced course for one year followed by another two years in Columbus College. It’s after this that he was promoted to Division General Staff Officer and later to infantry company commander for the 7^th (light) infantry division at Fort Ord, California. In 1988, he enrolled for masters of education at University of Texas for two years  in which he became an instructor for USMA, West Point from 1990-1991 in the department of behavioral and leadership sciences. Later on he was promoted to the level of assistant professor in the same department for two years. In 1993, he enrolled at BritishStaffCollege as a student for a British army command and staff course. Later he returned to America as a professor of military science for four years until his retirement.

 This has earned him numerous military awards, decorations and promotions in the United States military. Among them are the British jump wings, air assault badge, parachute badge, ranger tab, expert infantry badge, army achievement medal, good conduct medal, army commendation medal and meritorious service medal (Warrior Science Group, 2000).

Robert Roy Hazelwood was born on March 4, 1938 inPocatello, Idaho. He is a retired FBI special agent widely known for his work as a profiler of sex crimes. He has also served as a consultant on numerous violent crimes related to criminal and civil cases. He has lectured in many states on different issues pertaining violence.

Robert R. Hazelwood attended civilian education at Sam Houston State College in Huntsville, Texas and graduated with Bachelor of Science in 1960. After twenty years, he joined NOVA University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida for Master of Science in 1980 (Hazelwood R. R., 2008). His military education stated after his graduation from Sam Houston State College in the United States army Military Police Corps, where he was commissioned in 1971 as an officer rank with the rank of major at the time of discharge. He underwent criminal investigations course in the United States army military police school in 1962.  He then went for one year fellowship in the field of forensic medicine at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington for two years ending in 1969.he then went back to the U.S. Army military police school for a criminal investigations course until his commissioning (Hazelwood R. R., 2008).

 He joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1972 as a criminal investigative experience in Norfolk, Virginia also at Albany, New York FBI offices. In 1976, he was appointed as a supervisory special agent to head the FBI Management Aptitude Program at the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia (Hazelwood R. R., 2008). In 1978, he was transferred to the behavioral science unit in the same capacity for the NationalCenter for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). He headed this until 1994. From 1994, he has been the Vice President for the Academy Group, Inc. in Manassas, Virginia.

He has had specialized training in many fields throughout his career as a criminal and behavioral profiler. These include Criminal Investigations Course in 1978, Homicide Case Management in 1978, inter personal violence in 1979, advanced sexual crimes investigators course in 1979, criminal personality profiling in 1981, and criminal profiling coordinators course in 1984 among others. He has also attended numerous conferences and symposiums in the FBI academy (Hazelwood R. R., 2008).

Due to his training and expertise in the sexual crimes and particularly sexual sadism, he has many certificates, awards and honors. These include the University of Virginia Jefferson Award in 1983 and 1987, American college of forensic examiners “Eagle award” for Lifetime Achievement in 1997 and Significant Sigma Chi Award in 2003 among others. He has also received more than 100 letters of appreciation from more than 100 police departments and organizations (Hazelwood R. R., 2008). He is a member of many professional bodies related to his field these include the international homicide investigator’s association, criminal investigative division agents association, society of former FBI Agents, Virginia homicide Investigators Association, Harvard associates in police science among others.

Both Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman and Robert R. Hazelwood are exceptional professionals in their field of study. Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman is a specialist in the field of Killology in which he asserts that human beings reluctance to kill is a sign of normality. This contradicts the mostly publicized knowledge in political science that killing is an inescapable part of the human condition and that human beings are capable of killing and also non-killing (Paige, 2009). Robert R. Hazelwood is a specialist in the area of sexual sadism. Sexual sadism is a persistent pattern of becoming sexually exited in response to the other persons suffering. Although sexual excitement can occur at any time in any normal person, the suffering of other people is sexually arousing for a sexual sadist (Hazelwood R. R., 2011).

Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman has authored many books, which include: “Mental Toughness Skills for a Nation's Peacekeepers” (2010), “On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace” (2004), “Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence” (1999), “On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society” (1995), and “The 7th Infantry Division (Light) Capabilities Book” in (1986). In addition he has authored fictional books that include “The Two-Space War: Volume I of the Westerness Saga” (2004) and “The Guns of Two-Spaces: Volume II of the Westerness Saga” (2007) among others.

He has also written many book forewords, numerous articles in journals and periodicals and book chapters in the military service as well as in the field of psychology. He has numerous entries in the scholarly reference works e.g. aggression and violence in the Oxford companion to American military history, evolution of weaponry, psychological effects of combat, and behavioral psychology in the encyclopedia of violence amongst others. In addition he has presented numerous papers on different issues in the military and general society, which include: “How Many More Columbines? What Can Pediatricians Do About School and Media Violence” presented at Baltimore Maryland on April 29, 2001, “Teaching Kids to Kill: Media Violence and Domestic Terrorism in the Post-9/11 World” which was presented on October 22, 2001 at San Francisco and “Human Factors in War: The Psychology and Physiology of Close Combat” presented at an annual conference at military studies institute in New Zealand. He has provided many different training in the armed forces, medical, mental health, law enforcement organizations as well as public health organizations all over the world.

Most of the works of Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman have been on the psychological effects of war or combat on the individuals involved. In one of his books Let. Col. Grossman writes about the feedback he gets from World War II and the confirmation of his theory that people are often relactant to kill (Grossman, 2009). In other works, the reluctance of men to kill can be attributed to many unrelated issues some of them hereditary, social, conscience and personal factors (Pim, 2009).

Robert R. Hazelwood together with other researchers has conducted numerous researches on the field of sexual crimes. Between 1978 and 1982, together with Dr. Park and Ann Burgess, Ph.D., they collected and analyzed more than 150 death cases. This resulted to a book “Autoerotic Fatalities”. From 1983 to 1984 together with co-researcher John LeDoux, Ph.D., they conducted a survey on police officer’s attitudes towards the crime of rape and published their findings in a professional journal. After that they together with co-researcher Ann W. Burgess, Ph.D. interviewed 41 men who had raped 837 victims in a research to investigate the possible linkages between the sexual abuse and exploitation of children and juvenile delinquency, criminal activities and violence. Between 1989 and 1995, they together with Dr. Park E. Dietz and Dr. Janet Warren interviewed incarcerated sexual sadists and analyzed their findings. This research involved the reviewing of the literature from the victims and offenders and also analyzing of the cases. Three articles from this research were published (Hazelwood R. R., 2008). Then in1991 he was a co-investigator with Roland Reboussin, Ph.D. and Janet Warren, Ph.D. on the National Institute of Justice grant which was entitled as “The Cognitive Mapping and Temporal Sequencing of Serial Rape”. This research was concluded in 1995. During the same period he was also involved in the research of the literature review of twenty former wives and girlfriends of convicted sexual sadists. During this research his co-researchers were Dr. Park E. Dietz and Janet Warren, Ph.D. This research was concluded in 1999 after nine years and led to publishing of two articles. In the duration extending from 1994 -1999, together with co-researcher John Hunter, Ph.D. they did research involving the juvenile sexual offenders of 17 years old and younger. This research also involved the literature review and description analysis of 126 sexual offenders. This also resulted to two articles being published. Later in 2004  20 active and retired law enforcement officers who were involved in the sexual and violent crime investigations have been interviewed. . This resulted to the publishing of one book and an article. The following year, 2005, they together with Michael Napier started on the research on former wives and girlfriends of pedophiles and other child molesters.

Hazelwood states from one of the studies he conducted that, of the 30 sexual sadists studied, each of them intentionally and repeatedly tortured their victims. Some of the victims in the group studied had undergone particular means of torture repeatedly, which would symbolize a particular offender’s signature. Others didn’t have a common feature amongst the crimes which would symbolize that the serial offender was exploring the various techniques in an effort of finding a perfect scenario for torture. This would also be in an effort to mislead the investigators away from the original lead. In addition of the 30 sexual sadists studied, they psychologically tortured their victims  by blind folding, binding and also gagging.in other cases they threatened the victims by telling them what they will do to them, having them choose between slavery and death and also by having the victims choose the means by which they want to die.

Hazelwood also identified some characteristics amongst these offenders. Of the 30 sexual sadists all of them males, forty three percent were married, one half used alcohol as well as other drugs, less than half were educated beyond high school and one third served in the armed forces once in their lives (Hazelwood R. R., 2011). This is in line with lieutenant colonel Dave Grossman findings that normal men have the natural reluctance to kill fellow human beings in war or any scenario. Those who find it easy to kill are themselves not “normal”. According to (Daniel & Gilula, 2009), in a review of male reluctance in war, lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman explains that war debilitate 98 per cent of all the soldiers who are engaged in it. He further explains that the 2 percent who are not affected by it appear to have already been insane, arrogant and aggressive psychopaths even before their entrance into the battle field. Therefore, the results of the sexual sadists, one of them being in the armed forces can be linked to psychological distortion by the war itself. Hazelwood also found other sexual abnormalities among the offenders. .There were forty three percent participated in homosexuality as adults, 20 percent engaged in cross-dressing and another 20 percent engaged in sexual offences like peeping, obscene phone calls and indecent exposure (Hazelwood R. R., 2011).

Hazelwood also found that sixty percent of the offenders physically beat their victims. Twenty two of the men studied had murdered a total of 187 victims amongst which 17 of them killed three or more people. He also found that more than fifty percent of the offenders kept incriminating objects in their possession such as records of killings, their calendars, and maps of the places attacked, diaries, drawings and media accounts of their crimes. These evidences were also hidden in their offices, vehicles, in rented houses or buried. In addition, forty percent kept assorted personal items of their victims as mementos of their offences. Some of them even referred to these personal belongings as “trophies of their conquest” (Hazelwood R. R., 2011).

In the article, in which Robert R. Hazelwood together with co-researcher Ann W. Burgess, Ph.D. interviewed 41 men who had raped 837 victims, the fifty five to sixty one percent (51-61%) of sexual attacks perpetrated by these offenders were premeditated, fifteen to twenty two percent (15-22%) were impulsive and twenty two to twenty four percent (22-24%) were opportunistic (Warren & Hazelwood, 2011). According to this research, there are three styles used by serial rapists that include the “con” the “blitz” and the “surprise”. Each of them represents a different way of selecting, approach and subduing of the victims. The cons approach mostly involves the rapist’s ability to interact with women. In this case, the rapist openly approaches the victim and requests or offers some type of assistance or direction. Within the rapists control the rapists become gradually aggressive. This approach was used in twenty four percent (24%) of the first rapes, thirty five percent (35%) of the middle rapes and forty-one percent (41%) of the last rapes in the offenders studied (Warren & Hazelwood, 2011).

 In blitz approach, serial rapists use direct physical assault or chemicals that subdue the victim’s ability to physically defend themselves. This approach was used by twenty three percent (23%) of the first rapes, twenty percent of the middle rapes (20%) and seventeen percent of the last rapes (17%). The blitz approach was generally not preferred, since it inhibits certain fantasy components of the rape that might be arousing the serial rapist. Lastly, the surprise approach involves the rapist waiting for the victim or approaching her after she is asleep. In this approach the rapist has observed the victim for a long time and he knows when the victim will be alone. It was used by fifty four percent (54%) of the first rapes, forty six percent (46%) of the middle rapes and lastly forty four percent (44%) of the last rapes.

This study also found that among the major control methods the rapists use to maintain control over their victims, which includes the mere physical presence, verbal threats, use of physical force or verbal threats, eighty two to ninety two percent (82-92%) used the physical presence while sixty five to eighty percent (65-80%) used the verbal threats in order to control their victims. In other cases weapons were used. This research concluded that most of the rapes involved were premeditated, the con approach was used in most of the rapes mainly to establish the contact with the victims, physical presence and verbal threats were the main ways of maintaining the control over the victims, in most instances less or no force was used, rapists reported having very low satisfaction from the act, and rapists didn’t concern themselves with concealing their identities.in addition in just over fifty percent of the cases victims physically, passively or verbally resisted the rapists and approximately thirty three percent (33%) of the rapist had consumed alcohol at the time of rape. In the same study, it was identified that the most common effects of the act to the rapist were feelings of remorse and guilt. In other cases the rapists reported increased consumption of alcohol.