37-3 The Tree without Root: Exploring the Life Narratives of Intimate Homicide from Cultural Perspectives
This research was designed to probe the psychological mechanisms of a suddenly serious violence criminal (intimate homicide) but with no regular inclination towards physical violence. This kind of crime did not have a suitable category in intimate violence typologies and there were no considerations of cultural influence and cultural change in past litevatuves. The study tried to explore the life narratives of a male who committed intimate homicide from a multicultural counseling perspective. The inquiry followed a constructivism paradigm. A criminal was invited as an interviewee who had no crime record, no intimate violent characteristics, behaved well in jail, but he killed his wife, sons, and then tried to committed suicide. During the data analysis, four graduate students were recruited to co-analyze. The texts included transcripts of interview recordings, written verdicts, records made by social workers, and the result of Chinese Personality Disorders Inventory. The results presented 4 themes, namely: (1) life willpower in difficult situations; (2) the context of intimate homicide; (3) the beliefs related to intimate homicide; and (4) escape from the past and look forward to the future. Results were discussed and suggestions were made from the perspectives of intimate typology, gender role, and Chinese bi-culture phenomena.
Keywords
constructivism ； homicide ； intimate partner violence ； multi-cultural counseling ； narrative
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