Similarities or Differences of the Offender’s Characteristics

In the podcast, de Grood takes responsibility on killing the five victims, however, he states that he was being threatened and did not understand what he was doing wrong within the moment because he was experiencing a psychotic episode. De Grood’s statement in court exemplifies the techniques of neutralization outlined in Mark Pettigrew’s Confessions of a Serial Killer. In Unit 6, Pettigrew’s article discussed the confession of a perpetrator that killed 15 men and described how Sykes and Matza’s techniques of neutralization were used to analyze the murderer’s attempt on downplaying the severity of his crimes (Pettigrew, 2018). Denial of the victim, a technique of neutralization, involves questioning the injury and faults the victim for provoking the attack (Pettigrew, 2018). De Grood disclosed in court that he told Zackariah to give him space and took Zackariah’s statement of “maybe you’ll die before me” as a direct threat that gave rise to de Grood committing the massacre. The podcast addressed that witnesses in the courtroom noticed that de Grood showed little emotion to the sentimental tributes from the victim’s families while his own lawyer was moved by the statements. In comparison to patterns in perpetrators that commit this particular type of homicide, de Grood has similar characteristics to other offenders, however, it was stated that his lack of empathy was a side effect from his medication. De Grood’s denial of victim injury and lack of empathy raises red flags for the potentiality that he could receive an absolute discharge and be allowed to reintegrate back into society with no criminal record.