This article relays the gruesome homicide of a family by their father who was believed to be plagued by psychological issues. Christopher Wood killed his three children and wife before committing suicide. The indications of psychological issues come from a series of notes that were found around the house written by Wood. Compounding this mental illness is also believed to be debt problems that he was facing.
Eerily this report draws connections to Donald Black’s article on Crime as a social control. In the instance of this killing we see a manifestation of some form of the deviant classified self help that Black talks about. If there is validity to the implication of mental illness, the likelihood of Christopher Wood attempting acting in accordance to the effects severe psychological issues triggering impulsive explosive violence in the advent of the financial troubles he had been faced with. This is not to deny the possibility of other factors contributing to the multidimensional nature of the crime committed. However, the level of gratuitous violence exhibited in this case along with the evidence of the notes found around the house implies that there was impulsivity rooted within the act that seemed to be underscored by some form ill conceived logic that homicide would be a way of alleviating his burdens.
As a result we see how Black’s theory fits with the case of an individual who felt obligated for whatever reason to commit the crime which he did in order to manage the current conflict of his life. Whether this motivation was punishment based or moralistic we have no definitive way of ascertaining with the current information available. The argument may be made that there is a level of absence of law that exists in the domestic house hold which would facilitate the likelihood of this violent act occurring as based on Hobbesian theory. As Black states “law may be relatively unavailable both to those with grievance and to those who are the objects of self-help, as when people of low status and people who are intimate have conflicts with each other” (Black 42). This case falls into the latter of the two scenarios.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/18/maryland.family.shot/index.html