Frats' murderous brutality, symptoms of dysfunctional families

One does not need a doctorate degree in criminal psychology so as to discern, analyze, and understand what drives young and seemingly harmless boys and girls to commit brutal and heinous crimes like killing fraternity neophytes as part of hazing and initiation rites. We just have to be more observant of the patterns of family backgrounds and deviant human behavior, manifested by the young. Guidance counselors, DSWD, DepEd, and CHED human behavior analysts and specialists should do better and do more.

First, they should be able to detect that more than half of the frat killers come from families whose mom or dad, or both, work abroad. The young are deprived of maternal nurturing and paternal guidance during their growth and development. They have been keeping deep inside their hearts a strong sense of resentment and anger as to why they were abandoned by their closest blood relatives during their critical and formative years. No amount of money or expensive gadgets can make up for their deepest longing for love, affection, and caring. The young minds may comprehend the economic and financial justification for their parents' migration. But their young human psyche, their inner soul, their psycho-social being are deeply and irreparably damaged and traumatized.

Other sources of anger and resentment in young children are broken families, when dads and moms are legally or physically separated or had an annulment. The father might have been a gigolo or a playboy who keeps on philandering while the mother suffers in anguish and emotional pain. No matter how the parents try to hide from the kids the discord and even antagonism between couples, the children are smart and keen enough to detect and know the real score. Whenever the spouses collide and especially when their conflicts escalate into physical, emotional, and other forms of violence, the children are also wounded deeply in silent anguish and pain. No amount of luxurious gifts and gadgets can ever replace the blessings of a strong bond between fathers and mothers, and the graces of harmony and filial affection in the family home.

Still another source of anger among our young kids is too much poverty of the parents which deprives the children of a normal development with sufficient resources. Many children are made to work in their childhood and teenage years in order to support themselves. Many kids go to school without sufficient food and clothing. They have to walk for lack of transport money. They see their classmates with cleaner and more dignified looks. They become resentful and envious. Many young boys and girls have to become working students and sweep floors and clean toilets in exchange for free tuition. These predicaments wound their self-esteem and sense of normal growth.

These emotionally-wounded and psychologically-stigmatized young boys and even girls go to school harboring too much emotional baggage of anger, resentment, spite, and hatred for other children who appear to have happier family lives. Fraternities and sororities, with their initiation and hazing rites, present a very attractive venue and occasion with which to express their outrage against their dad and burdensome childhood. These unhappy young kids turn themselves into brutal killers. There is too much anger and resentment within them. I am looking at the guidance counselors and I am tempted to blame them for their lack of proactive, developmental, and holistic paradigm. They are missing the whole cause-and-effect reality before their eyes. In this sense, I blame not just the parents but also school authorities. These are their monumental failures.

I am not a human psychologist but as a lawyer, I have handled hundreds of cases involving aggressive and destructive behaviors in the workplace. I have handled illegal dismissal of employees who come to the workplaces drunk, high on drugs, or who figured in physical and verbal fights. I have handled cases involving workers who berate, defame, malign, and badmouth superiors, managers, and company owners. I don’t stop at imposing penalties of suspensions and dismissals. I study the root causes of these deviant behaviors. My findings are the same as narrated above.

There’s too much anger that emanates from the family and the home. Families are dysfunctional. Fathers and mothers have failed. The schools have failed. The Church has failed. Violence, brutality, and murder come from the hearts of sad and unloved boys and girls. We all have failed and we need to turn around this social malady. Dysfunctional families are the foundations of a nation of hatred and brutality.