Why they kill

Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. Already have an account? Log in. Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials. Sign Up. Pub Date: Sept. Page Count: Publisher: Knopf. Even after grad school, though, he had recurring difficulty getting a job, mostly due to his lack of the middle-class manners and social skills his colleagues and superiors expected of him. At the low point in his career, he had a PhD and had written a book that the criminology field had ignored, and he had to work in his father-in-law's auto body shop.

But even in the face of such catastrophic personal failure, he kept pondering the questions that interested him, kept doing research and writing books.

Oct 17, Kinga rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fiction , social-science. This book really got me thinking about the social 'sciences' - and their research methods. I love Lonnie Athens for his stubborness - for creating his own path to discovery. As far as I can tell he is the first person to try to use the scientific method definitely with some success, I might add in the social sciences.

If this is not true, if there were others - tell me, I beg you. I am truly enthralled by this concept! Also This book really got me thinking about the social 'sciences' - and their research methods. Also, as far as I can tell there were only one or two people, besides Richard Rhodes, who followed up on his work. I tried to get a hold of their work, and so far all I got was 1 or 2 articles - I think from the Oxford Journal of Criminology or something like it.

Jun 20, James Henderson rated it really liked it Shelves: biography , sociology. Richard Rhodes is one of my favorite authors. His book, Why They Kill, is unique in my experience, in that it is a blend of both biography and sociology. It is the biography of Lonnie Athens who lived a violent life as a youth and later dedicated his life to the investigation of the source of violence in criminals.

It is also a presentation of Athens' findings and an examination of the results of applying those findings to c Richard Rhodes is one of my favorite authors. It is also a presentation of Athens' findings and an examination of the results of applying those findings to criminals who Athens had not studied. The result of this, due greatly to the writing skills of the author, is a fascinating and unique story of the sociology of criminal life and the pathology of violence.

This is a challenging book for those readers interested in why some humans kill. Jan 15, Ellis Amdur rated it liked it. Rhodes covers in far more readable fashion the work of Lonnie Atkins, a pioneer phenomenologist of criminal behavior. In my opinion, Atkins' establ Rhodes covers in far more readable fashion the work of Lonnie Atkins, a pioneer phenomenologist of criminal behavior. In my opinion, Atkins' establishes the social conditions which would tend to activate traits endemic to human beings towards violence.

In a sense, he tells the story that violent people tell themselves to activate their violence. A very useful work — but not the inclusive answer to violence that it purports to be.

Jan 11, Heather rated it it was amazing. This book was extremely intriguing from the very beginning, especially for someone is who very interested in criminal behavior and criminology.

The evidence that is presented gives a substantial chunk to chew in, and I would highly recommend this book to those interested. It may be slow or dry for those who are not hardcore interested in the subject, but the results of the information is fascinating to the enthusiasts. I would like to read Lonnie Athens own works, instead of through another auth This book was extremely intriguing from the very beginning, especially for someone is who very interested in criminal behavior and criminology.

I would like to read Lonnie Athens own works, instead of through another author. The author of this book did make a desperate scramble to push his own ideas in at the end. He wasn't quite successful in my opinion. Jun 04, Beatrice rated it really liked it. Detailed,somwhat scholarly. This book took me a few days to read. I had to read it slowly and sometimes reread difficult to understand passages. Book proposes a new way to understand the development of the mind of a murderer.

It is partly a biography of the man who developed the ideas, some historical information on violence and child rearing practices and some debunking of other explanations of the formation of killers. I have a newer more organized understanding of the subject that I believe wi Detailed,somwhat scholarly.

I have a newer more organized understanding of the subject that I believe will increase my enjoyment of murder mysteries. Dec 18, wendy rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: those interested in violent criminals. His theory of violentization makes perfect sense and should be looked at by any educator, social worker, warden or any human being as a rule-book of how to make a violent human.

As a society, we can see the "line in the sand" and help those before they cross it. Nice extra is Mr Athens theory on self-shattering experiences. Jul 11, Stephanie rated it liked it Shelves: violence.

The first part describing Athens, the criminologist, and his theory was the slowest. Athens did have an interesting life, but it went on too long. The theories and papers described were not summarized for the layperson.

It read very academically, and I found that frustrating. The middle section was the most interesting. The author looked at records of historically violent people and applied Athens theory to them. Overall I liked it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it strongly. Apr 08, Kim rated it it was amazing. Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Rhodes. Very engrossing and thoroughly researched Also details how our human ethics are exploited by organizations such as the military.

Also highlights how Vets are victims of broken contracts between themselves and the government On my short list of must read books! Aug 08, Vanessa Baldwin rated it it was amazing. Introduces the concept of "Violentization", a developmental process that people go thru. How a person gets from victimized child to violent offender. VERY insightful. I'd recommend it to anyone who teaches in public schools, also.

Mar 02, Terri rated it it was amazing. This book was a real eye opener for me - regarding my own brush with violence in my early childhood and my close call with crossing the line into violent actor. Now I'm involved in peacework centered on nonviolence and this book gave me the insight to hold these violent members of our human community with compassion. Sep 27, Melia rated it liked it. Very disappointing - Rhodes even goes so far as to attempt to disprove Dorothy Lewis and Jonathon Pincus which, in my book is abomination!

He does discuss Dr. Lonnie H. Athens's thoeries and some does make sense completely but I will still argue that it is a combination of explanations together that culminate into a killer. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one ». Readers also enjoyed. Social Science. About Richard Rhodes. Richard Rhodes. Richard Lee Rhodes is an American journalist, historian, and author of both fiction and non-fiction which he prefers to call "verity" , including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb , and most recently, Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race Sloan Foundation among others.

He also frequently gives lectures and talks on a broad range of subjects to various audiences, including testifying before the U. Senate on nuclear energy. Books by Richard Rhodes. Naturally, the particulars of Athens's theory are significantly more complicated than a brief summary might suggest, but Rhodes's extended explication is gratifyingly clear-headed, intelligent and precise.

Athens's two published books The Creation of Dangerous Violent Criminals and Violent Criminal Acts and Actors Revisited are not themselves easily digested by a popular audience, and Rhodes has done a great service in explicating them so well. Indeed, the section of Why They Kill that deals directly with Athens's theory is an excellent primer in criminology, and it's the best part of his book, by far. T he biographical parts of the book roughly, the first sixty-five pages are less interesting, if only because Rhodes narrates them in a somewhat uninspired, stiff and at times even distant voice.

Partly, this may be because Rhodes relies too heavily on Athens's own memories of his childhood, rather than doing more extensive research among Athens's family and friends, as a full-fledged biography would have required. And the burden on Rhodes to assimilate his research into a completely new and independent voice--separate from Athens's--would have been more obvious as well, in a full-length biography.

But there may be another reason for the stiff voice: like Athens, Rhodes grew up in a violent family, and he may be consciously downplaying his tone to enforce objectivity on his text. The brief passages where Rhodes describes his own violent stepmother seem barely--but forcibly--contained in their anger.

Aside from Rhodes's rather pedestrian approach, the biographical material is notable chiefly for its hagiographic qualities. In the context of his otherwise muted voice in the biographical sections, Rhodes's praise seems overstated at times.

The general effect is odd, given the fact that Athens is so young, much less still alive. He's fifty years old. Rhodes's sort of enthusiasm is usually reserved for the biographies of dead Nobel laureates, rather than little-known, middle-aged criminologists.

Of course, an argument might be made that the biographical material is useful because Rhodes is treating Athens as a case study. The story begins with Athens' own violent childhood in Richmond: how he was beaten and terrorized by his brawling Greek-peasant father until he learned to fight back and menace his own contemporaries. But he was bright and inquisitive. He began to think about violence, and he took up the study of sociology when against all odds, considering his unstable background and crude demeanor, he got to college and went on to graduate school.

At first he was enamored of statistics and the quantitative school of sociology. But with a teaching assistantship at the University of Wisconsin he fell under the influence of the qualitatively oriented Chicago School, which held that people, unlike atoms and molecules, found meaning in their experiences and that social phenomena could not be measured. He was led to go beyond statistics, to interview violent criminals and ask them what they thought about and experienced when they committed their violent acts.

Surprisingly, he learned that they invariably made plans to commit violence, decided consciously to act and felt wholly responsible for what they had done. This was consistent with his childhood observations that violent people rarely seemed crazy on the contrary, crazy people were nonviolent , and contradicted the prevailing theories that murderers killed in bursts of unconsciously motivated passion and in spite of themselves.