Manipulative or Revenge Suicide
I followed the murder trial of Mark Jensen, who was tried for the murder of his wife Julie. There are a couple of issues that I believe should be explored more.
The first issue has to do with two varieties of suicide.(1)
Suicide in America is a taboo subject. If we were more open, many preventable deaths would be avoided. Even when the subject is publicized, there are political manipulations. A few years ago, the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services engaged in a program to publicize suicide in children. The glossy posters showed young girls only. When it was pointed out that more males suicide than females, the response was that girls attempted suicide more often that boys. The posters and the campaign disappeared.
And due to religious and other reasons, medical examiners, and coroners are sometimes coerced to rule a suicide as a different cause of death. Families do not want the stigma of suicide to cover the death of a loved one. But, for the good of society, the truth should take precedence over suppression, even if the family members are more comfortable in their denial
When I observed comments about the Jensen trial apparently most of the commenters did not have a clue about suicide.
Two varieties of suicide that can overlap are the manipulative suicide and the revenge suicide.
In the manipulative suicide, the victim will use the threat of suicide or the act of beginning suicide action as a way to gain attention or change the behavior of another.
I knew a young woman who would threaten to cut her wrists. Her mother would get excited and plead for her to stop. Then she would cut her wrist although not to the point of fatality. When she tried the same threats with her siblings, they were nonchalant and she did not cut. Unfortunately, she did this several times with her mother. The problem with this kind of suicide is while there may be no intent to complete the process, a step too far or mis-guess will cause an unintended death.
There is also a revenge suicide. And this can be a cause for suicide bombers, murder suicides, and solitary suicides. I had an English professor who liked to claim the Earnest Hemingway was angry with his wife so he blew out his brains to make a mess. I don’t believe the story was true, but even so demonstrates the kind of mind that a suicidal person can have. It is an “I’ll show you” kind of motivation.
In the Jensen case, his wife, Julie, publicized her death well ahead of time. She gave a letter to a neighbor with instructions to give it to police in the event of her death. The letter claimed that her husband was intending to kill her. She also made the same allegations to the police and a teacher. The police and teacher did not act on her statements.
Julie Jensen did not take any action to protect herself or leave. Some(2) will claim that American females are too stupid and frightened to leave situations and American men are veritable Svengalis. Therefore Mark Jensen caused his wife to act the way she did. But, that is conjecture.
And, in any given age cohort, American females will generally have a better-developed maturity and intellectual capability.
One thing about manipulative suicide is the actor does not plan on dying. So the question is if Julie Jensen poisoned herself, did she miscalculate?
If this was a combination manipulative suicide and revenge suicide, then the planning will be definite with the intent to finalize the suicide. And here, I would expect that the actor would make effort to implicate the person they feel has wronged them.
The defense would have been in better shape if they brought in an expert witness on suicide.
In the end, Mark Jensen was found guilty of murder by a jury. It seems that he engaged in inappropriate laughter on one occasion. The prosecution claimed that there were missing Ambien pills which were presumably used on Julie.
My experience with Ambien was that I started taking extra pills myself, and they did not make me sleepy. When I reported that to my doctor, he claimed I could not be addicted to them and prescribed more. With the second batch, the behavior of taking multiple pills escalated. I tossed that batch as I had with the first prescription.
I know there were many who wanted a guilty verdict which is a horrible thing to wish for. I only hope the jury got it right.(3)
in category Criminal Justice,Seeking Perspective
