Listening to killers : lessons learned from my twenty years as a psychological expert witness in murder cases

Listening to Killers offers an inside look at twenty years' worth of murder files from Dr. James Garbarino, a leading expert psychological witness who listens to killers so that he can testify in court. The author offers detailed accounts of how killers travel a path that leads from childhood innocence to lethal violence in adolescence or adulthood. He places the emotional and moral damage of each individual killer within a larger scientific framework of social, psychological, anthropological, and biological research on human development. By linking individual cases to broad social and cultural issues and illustrating the social toxicity and unresolved trauma that drive some people to kill, Dr. Garbarino highlights the humanity we share with killers and the role of understanding and empathy in breaking the cycle of violence.

Introduction : becoming an expert witness -- The concept of choice in the criminal justice system -- Keeping killers inside our circle of caring -- Moral damage: growing up with a war zone mentality -- Emotional damage: the consequences of unresolved trauma -- "If you're old enough to do the crime, you're old enough to do the time" -- Tales of rehabilitation, transformation, and redemption -- Guns don't kill people-- people with guns kill people -- Making sense of the senseless: understanding and preventing killing in America.