Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Killer Across the Table by John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker

5 reviews

sajayyy's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Rape, Murder, and Adult/minor relationship

laineybarbour's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Stalking

thelovelylibrarylady's review against another edition

dark informative tense slow-paced

4.0

When I stumbled upon this book written by John E. Douglas, the FBI criminal profiler who served as an inspiration for Mindhunter (a Netflix series), I knew that I had to read it. Not only am I a huge fan of the show, but I also have an interest in true crime. Douglas has talked to some of the most infamous criminals - mostly murderers - in the United States and his recounts of these meetings are phenomenal. He takes time to explain why murders commit the heinous crimes they do while walking the reader through four key interrogations he has led. I want to add that there is some content in this title that is disturbing. Douglas does share some graphic descriptions of violence and readers should take note of that before diving in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Sexual assault, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Physical abuse

rosenaughtin's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

3.5

I approached this book because I was a fan of the Netflix series Mindhunter, even though I don't typically reach for true crime. While it had a lot of gruesome detail and specific cases, it was mainly a meta-analysis on why the most heinous characters act the way they do. Of course, there's no exact answer to this, but Douglas does a good job of explaining how nurture and nature are both factors for sociopathic behavior and how interventions may or may not have prevented these crimes. 

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

gingermouse's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

3.0

Very graphic. Tells true stories from the perspective of the victim and the victims families as well as the killer. This is a hard read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Death, Gore, and Rape

Minor: Cursing