Every day in America violent people attack the innocent. The latest case grabbing the nation’s attention is that of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed to death last month in Charlotte, North Carolina. Footage released on September 5 shows an act of senseless, horrifying violence.
Zarutska’s killer had been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia, and many murders are committed by individuals with psychotic disorders. But not all of them.
Sometimes the attackers are driven by ideology, as appears to have been the case with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, or of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. (For more on this troubling trend of political violence, read Peter Savodnik’s “Robin Westman and the Rise of American Nihilism.”) And sometimes, individuals without a political agenda or psychotic disorders nevertheless display a persistent, disproportionate tendency toward aggression.
Psychologist Abigail Marsh refers to these conditions as “disorders of aggression.” In her piece today, she explains how such disorders arise from a mix of genetic and environmental factors—and why society’s failure to confront and study them puts us all at risk. —The Editors
Last year, someone was pushed onto the subway tracks in New York City roughly once every 14 days. On New Year’s Eve, 2024, 45-year-old Joseph Lynskey joined their number. As he stood waiting for a train, surveillance video shows a man pushing Lynskey from behind onto the tracks. The fall fractured Lynskey’s skull and ruptured his spleen. Soon a suspect was arrested, 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins.
Remarkably, Lynskey survived and, with treatment, has been able to resume normal activities.
This was not Hawkins’ first reported offense. Prior charges include assaulting a police officer and disorderly conduct; he has also been accused of throwing bleach into the face of a woman he was allegedly stalking, and hitting her dog. (Hawkins pleaded not guilty to attacking Lynskey following a January indictment of attempted murder and other charges.)
Hawkins’ alleged attack on Lynskey is just one in a series of similarly distressing reported attacks by persistently violent offenders. Here is a sampling of recent similar incidents in New York:
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