Bad mother of Japanese mass killer ~ is she to blame?

Question

The man behind a stabbing frenzy in Tokyo had a demanding and unloving mother who treated him terribly, news reports are claiming tonight.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mothers-discipline-was-brainwashing/2008/06/16/1213468318813.html

Despite her harshnens, her other sons have not killed even a single person.

How realistic is it to 'blame' the mother for this crime?

What about the father? Is he responsible, also?

Are either or both responsible for the deaths of the seven people their son killed, at all, not at all, or somewhat?

What do you think?

Answer 1

I think psychopathy is an inherited trait so when people look at the parent they draw the wrong conclusion. It's not the socialising but the genetics that is to blame. Her other kids haven't inherited the particular psycho gene apparently.

Answer 2

Ah, when in doubt, blame the mother.

Answer 3

Sounds like a pretty lame defence for a grown-up. So if he hated his mother so much then why didn't he go and slash her instead?

Answer 4

Someone with a realistic perspective would expect that people who commit violent crimes didn't have happy childhoods in caring families.

But they should also recognise that Many people have had terrible childhoods and bad parents and don't go on a slashing spree or become serial killers or even become violent criminals. Clearly the majority of people with bad childhoods don't end up like this.

I don't say this to say that a bad childhood with a messed up family is no big deal, not at all. It does get to kids and affects them in their life. I simply say that you can't blame this man's slashing spree on that alone.

Straight up, the person responsible for what he did is him.

But I think it's interesting that the overberaring abusive controlling mother is picked up by the media. You ask what about the father? which is good. I ask, what about the other adults in his life who notised things were wrong and didn't want to get involved?

I guess it makes better ratings to blame it on the evil bytch mum..

Answer 5

It's a bit like the dog ate my homework .. . or the check's in the mail . . . or I'm sorry, I thought you said eight o'clock . . . standard excuse . . . I don't know much about the Japanese culture so I'm not sure how his relationship with his mother will be perceived in the judicial system . . . Neither parent should be held responsible unless they had a direct link to the crime . . . Again, I'm unfamiliar with the Japanese culture, but in the U.S. a horrible parent might get you into an insanity plea at best.

Answer 6

I agree with Charity: neither parent should be blamed unless they were actively involved in planning or carrying out the crime.  As a parent, I'm painfully aware of how little control parents have over their grown children's behaviour.

Answer 7

Given that my 'answer' is nothing more than personal opinion, here goes:

I believe that every child's psychological makeup is different, given identical parenting. I behave and respond differently to my family's situation than my two older brothers. One became the 'mother hen' of the family - always fretting about the well-being of everyone else - the other fell deep into alcoholism, but has clambered out since, and I had developped the 'how not to be seen' defense mechanism.

The killer was what everyone thought of as a 'kind person' who 'caused no trouble to anyone', he went postal, as the saying goes.

Considering the harsh treatment from his mother (which could have been doled-out equally among her children, or perhaps she was more severe with the younger 'weaker'-seeming son), I wouldn't say that she was the /cause/ of his downward spiral, but consider what he might have become had she been supportive of his mannerisms, if she'd have encouraged him, instead of be stifling and hard. I think her treatment of him was certainly a contributing factor. At his age, it would no longer have been a /major/ factor (he'd had more years to experience the japanese 'business-man' workaholic work ethic to add more pressure). But a factor nonetheless...

Which brings me back to the statement above about how each person will respond differently to identical treatment - the rest of the 'blame' goes simply to his different psychological tenacity. He was weaker, less self-confident, and he snapped. Some people's "I've had enough" point is much higher than others.

Answer 8

She's as much to blame as the vicar husband of that psycho who killed her kids, people should stop looking for excuses for peoples behavior and just lock em up and throw away the key instead.

Answer 9

She is not to blame.    

We are only getting a one sided view here.  He could have always been a problem child and she had to discipline him differently.    From some of the quotes from him he seems to have wanted a majority of the attention.

Answer 10

Is the bad mother to blame for the Japanese mass killer; yes she must take responsibility for her part in the destruction her son caused.  As I read the story I noticed the brother telling stories of abuse that Tomohiro dealt with and did not read how the other boys were put through the same ordeals.  Maybe that is why the other brothers have not killed anyone but distanced themselves from their mother.  I think it is very realistic to blame the mother; treating your children like that is wrong and can damage them.  Of course the father shares a roll in this even if it was his lack of intervening in the situations.  Tomohiro is ultimately responsible for the the death of the seven people however his whole family should feel responsible for who he is today to do something like that.  Especially since the brother said that Tomohiro started being violent at 15; it means that the family was aware of his direction and did nothing to stop it.  I think that it is very sad and that any parent who abuses their child in the way the stories were told by the brother should never have children.

Answer 11

This matter is to be approached on a case by case basis.  May be it is realistic to 'blame' the mother for this crime in this case.  About the father, since the story has no mention about him, he may be irrelevant or dead in this particular case.

if "Despite her harshnens, her other sons have not killed even a single person."  this argument valid, we will have to include a lot of cases.  For example:

Can we include murdering children from postpartum depression as a lame excuse?  Not all mothers kill their children when under postpartum pepression ?

On the morning of Wednesday 20 June, between 9am and 10.30am, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family bathtub. The first to die was her youngest son, two- year-old Luke. Next came Paul, aged three. Then John, aged five. Then six-month-old Mary, Yates's only daughter. Seven-year-old Noah - who tried to escape - was then caught by his mother and drowned in the bath alongside the body of his dead sister. The killings completed, Yates phoned her husband, Russell. "You better come home," she said, then she called the Houston police and told them that she had killed her children.

Yates was neither poor nor ill-educated. A trained nurse and a graduate of the University of Houston, she had waited until her late-twenties to have her first child. She had a stable and apparently happy marriage to Russell Yates - a computer specialist at Nasa - and the loving support of an extended family.

Did they fry that women on electric chair?

Andrea Yates Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity

http://crime.about.com/b/2006/07/26/andr...

"I'm very disappointed," prosecutor Kaylynn Williford said. "For five years, we've tried to seek justice for these children."

Answer 12

Poor parenting can be blamed for making you feel a certain way, but once you are an adult, you own your actions. The fact that this woman's other sons have not turned into psychos is proof that you can overcome a bad childhood and not become a murderer.

Answer 13

John Wayne Gacy's mother doted on him and Ted Bundy had a good relationship with his mother but that didn't stop either of them from becoming serial killers.