Relationship Puzzle in Crossbow Drama | Germany | '
The so-called crossbow drama with three dead in Passau and two dead in Lower Saxony Wittingen continues to puzzle. In particular, the question of a motive for the entire event is not yet clear. The prosecution expects the 53-year-old and the two 33 and 30-year-old women from killing on request or suicide. The identity of the two women found on Monday in an apartment in Wittingen has been clarified. However, how they were killed is still unclear. One of the women was the companion of the 30-year-old, who was found dead in Passau. The second dead woman is a 19-year-old who also lived in the apartment. The three dead in Passau, a man and two women, had been shot with crossbows.
‘: Mrs. Benecke, the dead were not tied up. There was allegedly agreement to the action, which is why the police determined in the direction of joint suicide. How do you rate this case?
Lydia Benecke: Given the current thinness of the information available, you can not be sure of serious chances, but the investigators will have good reasons to find that direction. Certainly not all of the information that investigators will be aware of is currently accessible to all. From the specialist literature one knows such acts in different times and cultures. Different relationships can play a role here. Frequently, power dynamics play a role. One aspect that is especially important when it comes to advanced suicides, and not just two or three people, but maybe a group of people who have something connected.
That's exactly what the police are investigating. According to media reports, the five dead partly had a sexual relationship with each other. How can emotional connections promote violence?
Criminal psychologist Lydia Benecke
This can not be answered on a flat-rate basis, because it is not yet clear who was to whom in which kind of human emotional or perhaps even sexual relationship. The sexual aspect would only be a shaping of the interpersonal level. It will be crucial to clarify that exactly. Because the question is: are there any emotional dependencies and power structures within a group of different people who are not all related, but who have something in common? Are there leaders and followers? How exactly do the personalities within the group relate to each other, from which a destructive dynamic develops? These are essential questions that need to be clarified.
Are there certain personality images that could promote such an act?
There are very different constellations and the problem is, you can set up alternative hypotheses. Accordingly, the information situation is still too thin to be able to classify this. I'm afraid we'll have to wait for more information to be released by the investigators.
Ms. Benecke, have you experienced similar cases in your previous practice as a criminal psychologist?
There are several cases of the type of extended suicide. There are also cases where, for example, destructive groups that have had a sect-like function and dynamics have gone to the extreme of group killing or suicide.
A modern crossbow
Group dynamics as in sects must be distinguished from group dynamics in the case of extended suicides, which can occur between closely related private individuals, and sometimes also collectively. At the moment, the overall structure of the people involved here is still unclear. Also, the question of who did what exactly. Therefore one can not make a clear classification now. There are too many possible scenarios.
There are indications that the dead belonged to the so-called medieval or knight scene. In this respect, it is speculated whether it could play a role that those involved were part of a very special interest group.
At the moment there are still many hypotheses about the background of this unusual act. Of course, now the media and the public focus very much on external abnormalities such as dark clothes. Of interest is also the apparent affinity of some participants to the so-called medieval scene, in which people like medieval clothes and perhaps the corresponding music. But psychologically, all of this is packaging that is interchangeable with a group of people who are developing destructively. Accordingly, it would be very helpful if the media and the public withhold a bit and wait until the evidence of group dynamics is communicated. It makes no sense to focus on external abnormalities, but they do not say anything about the dynamics within the group.
The interview was conducted by Ralf Bosen.
Lydia Benecke is a criminal psychologist and author of popular science nonfiction books with an office in Cologne. She also deals with subcultures like the Gothic scene.
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