Criminology - Victor Hoffman - Case Study Example

Shell lake murders Introduction The shell lake murders as it came to be called was a series of murders committed by 21 year old man called victor Ernest Hoffman. The murders took place at Saskatchewan Canada on the 15th of august 1967 in the morning (Living in the Shadow of Tragedy). Victor Hoffman drove into the home of James Peterson and killed him with a gunshot to the head at close range and his wife and their seven children who were in bed sleeping. However, a little girl was missed by victor during his murdering spree but victor later confirmed that he spared her life because of her looks. It was later reported that victor had been released forma mental hospital barely three weeks before (Saskatchewans Top News Stories: Heroes and Outlaws). He was arrested after four days of police hunt in his family house and did not resist arrest. Upon interrogation with the police as to his reason for the Peterson murders he said the devil instructed him to do a big, random killing for him in order to be rich (Victor Ernest Hoffman | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers). The little girls who survived was later raised by her older sister who was married off and was living with her husband in a different town when the murders occurred. Victor was later released without charges on account of insanity and died in 2004 from cancer in a mental institution. This paper is going to discuss this case in two distinctive criminological theories: the strain and genetics theories. Theories Strain theory The strain theory as a criminological theory suggests that every individual in fact everybody have akin aspirations and goals in life. These aspirations are mainly succeeding in life through achieving financial freedom through acquiring huge amounts of wealth. In addition, people aspire to live long healthy lives. In general, people always have the same aspirations of being wealthy and living long to enjoy their money. Therefore, the strain theory suggests that in a case where an individual fails to achieve this general life aspiration through conventional means like education andhard work, they try other means (Agnew, 193). Failure can mean delayed fulfillment or just failure to accomplish even the small parts like finishing elementary education which will see an individual to higher learning which means good jobs. This is where the strain theory comes in, in that when an individual has failed in life they use other un conventional means like crime to make up for their failed life or get major recognition or publicity that they may never achieve in life because they want to feel they did something even when it is wrong, evil or criminal (Agnew, 53). In the case of shell lake murders, the criminal victor Hoffman started school at the age of six (Kahan, 129). This is a bit late since most children start school at age two. Furthermore, victor struggled and had to repeat tow grades that is grade three and grade nine. In addition to this, victor did not finish school since he went up to grade nine and dropped out. Yet it was said he had the brains to go up to grade twelve. He did things that his fellow mates were not able to do like fixing broken bicycles, planting plants in crooked terrain in bad soil and many others. His head teacherstated that when he reached grade nine he started to play hokey with his school life (Kahan, 129). In short he meant something went wrong with the young man. These two facts seemed to have strained victor into thinking he was doomed for failure in his life. The strain theory seemed to have caught up with victor in that he reached a point where he realized that he was not going to achieve anything in his life. Taken in with this panic attack his mind started racing trying to find a solution to his problem. He probably started comparing himself to his peers who by that time had probably finished high school and were going to colleges and doing interesting courses which would lead to good jobs and good lives at the end. This frustration led him to act out and also be felt in the community. It is this frustration that led him to commit this atrocious murder. It is also the reason he did not resist arrest because he had known the consequences and the consequences was what he wanted: attention and power. He felt power when he took the lives of nine people at a go and he got the needed attention when he was arrested, his name in all televisionstations and leading magazines. He also had interviews with leading authors who wanted his version of the story. He got the media and public attention like he wished for in his life. The strain theory clearly explains the reasons why victor Hoffman could have committed these crimes. He was a frustrated young man with no formal education or certificates to guarantee him good life in the future. Furthermore, he was comparing himself to his peers and saw that he was deemed a failure and was soon going to be disrespected. The voices he claims were from the devil instructing him to kill and make a big show out of it was his sub conscious at work. His sub conscious had transformed itself and projected itself like the devil and was talking to him while in the real sense he was the one telling himself those things. He killed out of his own intuition because of the panic signals his body was sending the brain giving him impulses to commit murder and make history. The strain theory is a very practical theory since even in this case the holes in the life of the criminal go hand in hand with the theory’s stipulations of failure and delayed fulfillment in life thus achievement of aspirationsthrough unconventional means. Biology, Genetics And Evolution Theory Biology, genetics and evolution theory states that a number of things like bad diet, mental illness, bad brain interaction and evolution can result to criminal tendencies (Maynard, 338). This means that an individual with poor food habits or lack of good food can have criminal thought because they are living an uncomfortable life. This bitterness can lead them to take out their frustrations on the public and innocent people since they feel they are somehow responsible for the turmoil they are facing. Also, mental illness has been known to cause people to be criminals in that their minds hallucinate and they hear imaginary voice and see imaginary people thus doing criminal things that they would have otherwise not have done had their mental states been stable.Mental patients always do criminal activities while not intheir right mental state and can be compared to a person who is high on drugs. Mental illness is closely related to bad brain chemistry which also alters the brains normal working condition and makes an individual think like a child or an insane person thus doing criminal activities without the knowledge of the consequences it carries but also without their own free will since there are not normal. Evolution can also cause criminal tendencies in that the genes of mental disorder can be transferred to a person from his a parents or family background and thus commit crime. Genetics thus has a hand in the making of criminals as they commit these crimes without having a choice as they do not have a right state of mind. In the case of victor Hoffman and the shell lake murders, the biology, genetics and evolution theory comes in play. Victor Hoffman childhood seemed to be normal just like his other siblings (Kahan, 130). He was a healthy child who matured and grew normallyalthough he was shy and quite. As he grew up he was withdrawn, a loner and reserved. He never indulged in the pleasures that youngsters indulged in like alcohol drinking or smoking of cigarettes. He went to church occasionally but that was to make his father happy. He had both parents who were farmers; his father was German and his mother Ukrainian. Therefore, form this statements victor Hoffman seemed to be a healthy child with no food problems. He also did not have genetics transfers of mental diseases thus no evolution took pale in his case. But victor was a loner, withdrawn and reserved individual which was later confirmed by his doctor as schizophrenia. This confirmation of schizophrenia is an indication of mental illness on the patient. The symptoms of schizophrenia include hallucinations, unsystematic speech, inert behavior, aberration and expressive flatness. If these symptoms are observed in frequent succession for thirty days then the person is categorized as schizophrenic. Victor exhibited all this symptoms by first showing hallucinations. He claimed that the devil approached him several times since he as six years old and told him to do certain things. He describes the devil as a black man, black as night with no genitals but with a tail, about 6’6 tall weighing about 300 pounds and looked like a pig (Kahan, 130). This man supposedly spoke to him and even promised him riches if he would kill for him. This is hallucination of the highest order. Victor also portrayed inert behavior in that he would torture animals and kill some or trap them in unbearable conditions. This was a show of aberration of behavior. In addition, victors portrayed emotional flatness in that he could kill nine people at close range without feeling any kind of emotion. He only left the young girl because he thought she looked like an angel. Victor knew the young girl looked like an angel because he claimed he had seen angels and God spoke with him. He described angles to look like females and did not appear as frequent as the devil. In fact the angels tried to protect him and always advised him against killing birds. Therefore, he left the young girl because he resembled the angles who tried to help him. In general victor’s schizophrenia could be responsible for the crime he did. The vision about angles and devils were fragments of his mind trying to justly itself or finding and alibi for himself as he knew the things he did were wrong/ he tried to shift blame away from himself by saying the devil instructed him to kill. Conclusion Victor Hoffman killed nearly all the members of the Peterson family. He only left a young girl Phyllis because he thought she looked like and angel. The eldest sister was passed because she was married and living in another town. In order to find out the reasons why victor could have committed these crimes through a criminological lens the paper has discussed two distinctive theories that are the strain theory and the biology, genetics and evolution theory as some of the reasons for his criminal activities. Works Cited Agnew, Robert. Pressured into Crime: An Overview of General Strain Theory. Los Angeles, Calif: Roxbury Pub, 2006. Print. Kahan, F.H. “Schizophrenia, mass murder, and the law.” Orthomolecular psychiatry. 2, no. 3 (1973): 127-146. "Living in the Shadow of Tragedy."Living in the Shadow of Tragedy.Web. 12 Dec. 2014. . Maynard, Smith J. Evolutionary Genetics. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998. Print. "Saskatchewans Top News Stories: Heroes and Outlaws." Saskatchewans Top News Stories: Heroes and Outlaws.Web. 12 Dec. 2014. . "Victor Ernest Hoffman | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers."Victor Ernest Hoffman | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. . Read More