Application of strain theory to the criminal case for Beverly Allitt
Application of strain theory to the criminal case for Beverly Allitt
Background information on Beverly Allitt
Beverly Allitt is a British female nurse convicted of murder and attempted murder charges in May 1993 after killing four babies and attempting to kill nine others (Marks & Richmond 2008). Her early life demonstrated incidences of attention-seeking through unconventional means such as causing injury to others or feigning illnesses. The height of her pretence was witnessed when she caused the surgical removal of her otherwise perfectly functioning appendix which she insisted was interfering with the healing of a scar she had self-inflicted. On occasions, she would tie a bandage over her head claiming an injury but would not let people examine the ‘injuries'. Her condition resulted in her hopping from doctor to another after doctors began noticing her pretentious behaviour.
She went on to train as a nurse where she continued to show symptoms of attention-seeking through smearing faeces on the walls of the nursing home. Her absenteeism from class was also exceptionally high. However, despite these and other suspicious characters, she luckily landed a contract as a nurse in a chronically understaffed health facility, Grantham and Kesteven Hospital. The facility is located in Lincolnshire in 1991 (Yardley & Wilson 2014). The facility had only two daytime nurses and one night shift nurse when she was taken in, a fact that allowed her spree of violence to go unnoticed for long. While working in the children's ward 4, Beverly was responsible for the murder of four victims, attempted murder of 9 victims and caused bodily harm to several others.
In July 1991, after an obvious trend in the death of victims under her care, police presented enough evidence to prosecute her but was not formally charged until November of the same year. A search of her home was conducted in which a missing nursing log was identified. A further medical interrogation of her life revealed she suffered a serious personality disorder with symptoms of known mental illnesses namely Munchausen's Syndrome and also Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy. Munchausen's syndrome involves one either self-inducing physical or psychological symptoms to gain attention from others (Huffman & Stern 2003). On the other hand, Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy involves causing injury on others to gain attention (Hettler 2002). Her trial in Nottingham Crown Court in May 1993 lasted over two months culminating in her being granted thirteen sentences on all her murder charges as well as the attempted murder charges. She currently is serving the sentences at Rampton Hospital in Nottingham a highly secured facility for mainly individuals detained under the mental act.
Most applicable to Beverly's case is the strain theory of crime. According to the theory, as put forward by Robert Agnew 1992, individuals generally resort to crime due to two general type of strains: other people preventing one from achieving their goals, or others taking the things that one values, or presenting them with negative stimuli which prompt the person to respond with crime. More specifically, however, crime happens when individuals fail to achieve social success and happen to blame other individuals for the occurrence. For individuals who are weak in internal personal control, they resort to violence to vent the frustration while those who are strong in internal control may be able to contain their emotions and resort to such avenue as dialogue to negotiate for a civilised solution.
Strainful events cause bad feelings which build pressure for an action to correct the bad feeling and return the individual to a more socially fulfilling position. The nature of the response, whether violent or not, is dependent on a number of factors among them, availability of resources and coping skills such as excellent negotiation skills. For example, people with financial resources may be able to hire an arbiter to mediate the dispute as opposed to physically attacking the opponent while people with proper negotiation skills are better off negotiating for an amicable end to the dispute. Further, resources such as having a supportive family who offer advice, support and emotional guidance may reduce chances of a person responding to bad feelings through violence and crime.
Analysis of Beverly Allitt Psychological Condition
A keen analysis of Beverly's psychological condition displays a positive correlation with incidences of her early life as captured under background information above. Her attempts to earn social recognition are seen when she inflicts suffering on her patients to earn attention from her colleagues which compare well to her attention seeking character witnessed during her young and adolescent days.
Beverly's condition did not necessarily reveal her committing the triad of symptoms which include arson, neurosis and cruelty to animals (Myers & Borg 2000). The three were traditionally theorized to have a positive relationship to would-be serial killers at adulthood. Arson is thought to be a mild form of releasing stress in which a person sets items on fire to relieve aggression and return to self-worth. Cruelty to animals has been theorized as a rehearsal to killing humans while persistent bed wetting, though largely discredited, is known to cause humiliation on kids from their parents after which they could result to fire setting or cruelty to animals to vent their frustration (Myers & Borg 2000). Modern researchers, however, discredit the notion that absence of these symptoms could nullify chances of one being a serial killer.
Beverly clearly ascribes to the profile of a serial killer. A serial killer is any person who commits three or more murders on separate events to satisfy some form of psychological gratification such as to relieve anger and frustration, or for other motives such as financial gain, sexual greed or attention seeking (Ferguson et. Al., 2003). Clearly, the case of Beverly exhibits nearly all of these characteristics, giving reasonable grounds to label her a serial killer especially also noting that the killings happened over a period of more than a month with significant breaks between each of the events, a consideration for labelling one a serial killer.
Detailed Information of the Crimes Committed
Criminal allegations against Beverly are based on the period she was stationed as a nurse at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital which is located in Lincolnshire in 1991. In just over a period of barely two months, Beverly had murdered four patients under her care and attempted murder on another nine victims though the careless administration of insulin (Marks 2009).
The first victim to die under Beverly's watch was 7-month old Liam Taylor, who was brought for medical attention to Ward four where Beverly served after suffering an infection in his chest. The parents left for home after Beverly assured them that Liam was under her able hands. On returning, Beverly told the parents that the kid had suffered a respiratory emergency but had recovered. However, Liam developed another crisis towards midnight and was left under Beverly alone. It involved a respiratory related condition. His condition continued to worsen, and he turned deadly pale where he only remained alive on life support after suffering a cardiac arrest and severe damage on the brain due to lack of oxygen.
The second victim was Timothy who was admitted after suffering an epileptic fit on Mar 5, 1991. Upon being left in the sole care of Beverly, he turned blue and died amid efforts to resuscitate him after Beverly summoned emergency team. An autopsy was unable to reveal the death cause and instead his epileptic condition was conveniently blamed.
The third victim was 1-year old Kayley admitted to Beverly's Ward four on Mar 3, 1991, upon suffering a chest infection from which he was seen to be recovering properly. However, after five days under Beverly's care, he suffered a heart attack on the bed that Liam died about two weeks ago. The emergency team was able to resuscitate him and took him to a bigger hospital located in Nottingham where physicians discovered an abnormal puncture on his armpit and an air bubble near where the puncture was. All this pointed to an injection done accidentally, but no investigation was conducted.
The first victim of attempted murder under the care of Beverly would be Paul Crampton brought to the care of Beverly after suffering a less than serious infection of the bronchioles on March 20, 1991. Towards his discharge, Paul went to near comma on three occasions under the sole care of Beverly but was luckily rescued by the team responsible for resuscitations. However one of a pair of twins, Beckie, taken to hospital due to premature delivery suffered death in the hands of Beverly. Beverly had suggested that Beckie felt cold in touch, causing her to be put near her mum for observation. During that night, Beckie went into complications and later died. Several other patients suffered at the hands of Beverly until one suspicion was raised over the high number of incidences of death for patients under Beverly's care. This happened after the death of a seemingly healthy Claire Peck of 15 months, who was asthmatic and only needed a breathing pipe but developed a cardiac attack only after a few minutes under Beverly's care.
An investigation was initiated by Dr Nelson Porter from the hospital after an array of cases of cardiac arrest in Ward four which was under Beverly. Tests revealed extremely high amount of potassium in the body of Claire causing her exhumation. Further tests revealed traces of Ligconaine, a drug used when patients suffer cardiac arrests but which must never be given young babies. Based upon these findings and subsequent interrogations, the trial of Beverly in court and her subsequent sentencing was undertaken.
References
Ferguson, C. J., White, D. E., Cherry, S., Lorenz, M., & Bhimani, Z. (2003). Defining and classifying serial murder in the context of perpetrator motivation. Journal of Criminal Justice, 31(3), 287-292.
Hettler, J. (2002). Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Pediatric emergency care, 18(5), 371-374.
Huffman, J. C., & Stern, T. A. (2003). The diagnosis and treatment of Munchausen’s syndrome. General hospital psychiatry, 25(5), 358-363.
Marks, V. (2009). Insulin murders. Medico-Legal Journal, 77(2), 39-47.
Marks, V., & Richmond, C. (2008). Beverly Allitt: the nurse who killed babies. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 101(3), 110-115.
Myers, W. C., & Borg, M. J. (2000). 14 Serial Offending by Children and Adolescents.
Yardley, E., & Wilson, D. (2014). In Search of the ‘Angels of Death’: Conceptualising the Contemporary Nurse Healthcare Serial Killer. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling.
