DALLAS, Texas. In the aftermath of the recent shootings in Las Vegas and the New York City truck terror attack, authorities have been struggling to understand the reasons why those responsible committed these unspeakable acts. Authorities are still trying to unravel the Las Vegas shooter’s motivations, and police are just beginning to learn more about the terrorist responsible for using a rental truck to plow into cyclists on a bike path in Manhattan. What motivates these killers, and what can we learn about these motivations to stop similar attacks from happening in the future? Furthermore, is there a link between these acts, and the more mundane, but unfortunately common act of road rage?
According to Wired, the brain of the Las Vegas shooter is being sent to Stanford University to undergo tests. The scientists plan to look for degenerative disease, abnormalities, or other changes that could reveal clues about his motivations for the shooting. In fact, there are areas of the brain, that, when damaged, can make a person more violent. Yet, many skeptics believe that understanding the underlying structure of the brain won’t tell us more about why some people perform violent or deadly acts. Many people have tumors or brain damage, but never commit violence.
Yet, one researcher studying violent criminals found the part of the brain that stops aggression isn’t quite working in some violent criminals. NPR called the researcher’s project a project to “understand the brain of psychopaths.” Yet, ironically, when the researcher turned his own scans on himself, he found that his brain resembled those of the killers he was studying. What does this reveal? Brain structure alone doesn’t dictate behavior. Other factors, like environmental triggers, social connections, and personality must also play a role.
Recent reports from the New York Times on the personality of the man who plowed his truck into innocent New Yorkers indicate that friends and family who knew the man claim that they would never have thought of him as a terrorist. Family and friends of the Las Vegas shooter expressed the same sentiments. What went wrong with these two men?
Maybe it goes back to what goes wrong when drivers exhibit road rage behind the wheel? An average person, exposed to stressors, and protected by the anonymity of his or her car, acts in a way he or she otherwise would not act were he or she sitting right in front of a person. Acts of road rage can result in death or injury. Yet, every day, mothers, teenagers, and average people speed, cut people off, tailgate, and otherwise engage in acts that can potentially endanger the lives of other people.
It isn’t likely that research will reveal the precise kind of neural structures, life events, and personality required to create a killer or a road rager. At the end of the day, we need to consider the ways in which we process anger behind the wheel. And, if you’ve been a victim of road rage, understand that you have rights. The Law Offices of Robert Gregg are Dallas, Texas personal injury attorneys who fight for the rights of those injured by acts of aggression on the road.