Shahbad gruesome murder case: Read experts view on criminals' psychology behind violence, aggression

New Delhi: As cold-blooded murders of similar fashion have unfolded in India's metropolitan cities, jolting the collective sanity of the nation, the national capital has again been shaken by the horrific murder of a minor girl in Shahbad Dairy area by her boyfriend who not only killed her in cold blood but also crushed her head with a boulder.
As per the police, the accused was in a relationship with the victim girl, but they had a quarrel on Sunday night after which he killed her after stabbing her 16 times. The CCTV visuals also appeared where the accused can be seen stabbing the girl multiple times and then hitting her head with a boulder. Several locals can be seen present there but no one intervened in the matter.
As the police continue to investigate the Shahbad Dairy case, the many extremes visible in this case have evoked many debates as the nation struggles to understand what is the reason behind this level of brutality.
But this isn't the first of such incidents. The nation has been witnessing these types of incidents these days where youngsters commit gruesome crimes after being triggered by some arguments or fights.
Last year in May, Shraddha Walkar, the 26-year-old woman was allegedly killed by her boyfriend Aaftab Poonawala who chopped her into 35 pieces and disposed of her body parts in Mehrauli forest of Delhi.
Poonawala apparently confessed to his interrogators that he chopped Walkar's body into pieces and got rid of them by dumping them across Delhi-NCR.
Aaftab was claimed to have said that he kept the victim's head in the refrigerator and often looked at it in memory of their relationship.
He had also told the police that he dumped Walkar's head at the very end of his gruesome effort to get rid of his live-in partner's corpse.
In December last year, Anuj Sharma who studied engineering but had been associated with the 'Hare Krishna' movement for the last seven-eight years -- had allegedly murdered his aunt, chopped the body into pieces and dumped them at different places near Delhi highway in Jaipur.
A rise of spine-chilling murder cases where bodies have been disposed of in an undignified manner makes us wonder about the mental state of cold-blooded murderers.
It is pertinent to mention that recent gruesome murder cases involve youth acting out of rage and anger as well as the incidents have became a new normal for them the onlookers, especially seen in Shahbad's case, acted like thick-skinned, and still didn't react after seeing the brutal scene.
ANI spoke to Dr Shabiullah Syyed, a Consultant Psychiatrist at Hygiea Hospital who decodes the reason behind aggressive and violent behaviour in an individual.
As per Dr Syyed, aggressive behaviour is an associated symptom of many psychiatric disorders and can manifest throughout the life span.
"Psychiatric psychology behind these heinous crimes is mainly mental issues and psychiatric disorders a person may have. These types of criminals are actually undergoing personality disorder which is called anti-social personality disorder which actually starts to form at the age of 13 to 14 when a personality is formed in an individual," he said.
He further said that a person may have Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) before the age of 13 to 14 years which later turns into other mental disorders if not treated timely.
"Before this age too, a person may have mental turmoils which is called Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) where a person does not consider anyone around him. And when ODD is not treated by the time or picked up, that converts into conduct disorder where a person usually tries to violate the laws and breaks the rule when this is not treated at the time, it converts into do things- one is an anti-social personality disorder and bipolar disorder. And these crimes take place by the person facing any of these two disorders. We can see in the Shahbad Dairy case, we can see the accused got triggered by a minor thing and could not control his anger which led to this heinous crime," he added.
Talking about the 'emotional numbness' of the criminal, he said people facing anti-social personality disorder do not feel regret even after committing the crime.

"We see these people are regretful even after committing the crime and it happens only when the person with the anti-social personality disorder. So these are the main reason that I see behind an individual being aggressive and violent. Other reasons are also there such as dysfunctional family, childhood traumas and all," the Doctor said.
On the question of whether exposure to violent media leads to aggression in the person, he denied it and called it a "false narrative".
"We don't become what we talk about repeatedly and many researches show the fact that people don't commit suicide even after witnessing suicide stories. So, it's a false narrative that exposure to violent media leads to any violence," he said.
Talking about the methods to control aggressive behaviour, Dr said that it only can be cured if it is picked up at an appropriate time by family members, friends or anyone close to his/her.
"The person needs to be consulted by a psychiatric," he added.
The Director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Social Sciences Ash Naraine Roy, while talking about the behaviour patterns, triggers, and mental status of such individuals who commit bone-chilling acts of murder said that piling issues, old grudges and an anti-social lifestyle can lead to a sudden burst of anger in some which leads to committing such crimes.
Reasoning the loneliness among the youth as one of the biggest factors, Roy said, "The misconception is you are lonely when nobody is around but the if you feel lonely being among your friends and family- that can trigger at worst. In youths, if the most common thing that can increase their anger is that- when they feel they are not achieving anything in their life or when they see someone else getting more success, then they are susceptible to take such steps to gain what they need in their life."
He further said that not only this but there is a combination of predisposing sociological traits channelled by social circumstances that leads to criminal behaviour.
"We cannot reason only one thing behind such crimes as there is complexity such as- frustration, failure, inability to make something good in life and when all these things are combined, its impact turns to be heinous crimes. These criminals can be called psychopaths," he added.
However, on being asked about to what extent movies play a role in impacting an affected human mind, Roy differed with Dr Syyed and said the question is more complex than meets the bare eye and blames the normalisation of violence through television and cinema along with a lack of communication and a low anger threshold.
"We should see these crimes in the context of society, systems and organisations as everything affects a person at every step. We all know that a movie is a mirror of society and violence in the movies and web series to such extent- of course, generates the idea of crimes. Adolescent young people become immune to these things after watching these kinds of films," Roy further said.
He also said that the reduced ability to regulate emotions also triggers the crimes.
"People are also leading an anti-social lifestyle. All of it can result in a fit of rage that they cannot control their anger. In the West, the idea of being alone which they term as 'freedom' has been established but in our country, this is not the case. We are accepting it and it is happening very fast which is very hard to accept and people's mental health is getting compromised. People hesitate to discuss such things which creates gaps in communication," Roy said. (ANI)