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Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'
The Killer Across the Table by John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker
4 reviews
taylorlanxon's review against another edition
3.75
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Rape, Murder, Pedophilia, Torture, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Stalking
librarymouse's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Animal death, Body horror, Car accident, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical content, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Rape, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, and Suicide
Minor: Addiction and Alcohol
avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Stalking, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Medical content, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Incest, Hate crime, Homophobia, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Child death, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
rosenaughtin's review against another edition
3.5
The book is divided into 4 parts, each one focussing on a different killer who Douglas has interviewed, but it is interspersed with many other anecdotes and more recognizable names. I liked that he chose lesser-known murderers as his main subjects because I went in without preconceived notions of what happened. I was also impressed with Douglas' ability to empathize with his subjects in order to get a clearer picture, despite his personal disgust.
Things I didn't like so much: While Douglas showed his powers of empathy when talking about killers, he didn't always extend the same understanding to victims. I didn't like how gendered his remarks were considering victims, e.g. often describing the female victims by their attractiveness and pretty much ignoring any personal details about male victims. There was a brief quote about one murderer who abused his girlfriend, and Douglas expressed disbelief that she would have taken him back in. It bothered me that he couldn't take the time to empathize with a domestic violence survivor or understand the dynamics of gender-based violence. In general, I think he could have gone a little deeper about the social structures that are in place which lead men to more often be perpetrators and women to be victims.
While Douglas is clearly a brilliant man who cares deeply about protecting the public from violent predators, his reverence of the FBI and Law Enforcement can get tiresome. He brushes over obvious failures of LE and the prison industrial complex even when expressing frustration over the way cases were handled. One particular distressing incident: a woman's husband and his business partner were both murdered, and the LE on site took DNA matter (seemingly unbeknownst to the woman!) from her baby, then insisted that the baby belonged to the business partner and not her husband. She vehemently denied this but was briefly thought to be involved in the murders somehow due to her infidelity. 18 ENTIRE MONTHS later, Douglas casually mentions that the blood splatters were mixed up and her husband was indeed the father of her child. WTF??? I can't imagine how traumatizing that must have been for the woman! That whole passage really rubbed me the wrong way.
Graphic: Rape, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Child death, Blood, and Animal cruelty