Exploring Violent Crime Theory through Medium of Violent Film Final

Theory of Violentization

Basic assumption: violent people are a product of their social experiences, which can be placed in sequential process, i.e. an ordered process, which is comprised of different stage each stage is comprised of its own unique experiences.

The Experiences are not mutually exclusive

Human experiences results from the interaction of human being + his/her environment at a particular time and place. Bodiless experiences are as impossible. As environmentless experiences. Experiences make you. The interaction w your body in the specific point and time. What arises in you to make that experience what it is. Have to have a body to have an experience. 

Composite Experience

 is always composed of more than one elemental experience 

Elemental experience

composed only of itself

Stage 1 Brutalization: Violent Subjugation

Practiced in Two Ways: coercively & retaliatory, a bully tries to violently subjugate you

Stage 1 Brutalization: Personal Horrification

see something intimate of yours, undergo violent subjugation. It can take a toll on you 

Stage 1 Brutalization: Violent Coaching

places himself violence, doesn't run from people, goes ahead and physically attacks them. Don’t seek to appease them. Not purely psychological

Stage 2 Defiance: Personal disorganization

when undergoing brutalization, you are personally disorganized. does not know how to handle all that is going on.

Stage 2 Defiance: Violent epiphany

you got to be violent yourself, meet violence w violence. Mitigated violence resolution

Stage 3 Violence dominance engagements - a completion

A completed violent encounter or violent engagement

Stage 3 Violence dominance engagements - a victory

Scoring a major victory during an engagement against feared foe. (also draw, minor victory or no decision)

Stage 4 Virulency Stage: Violent reputation

get a violent reputation for ex: at school, usually people don’t want to interact with you. Gain it w big victories

Stage 4 Virulency Stage: Malignancy

embrace new identity as “Dangerous Violent Criminal”, unmitigated violent resolution

Stage 4 Virulency Stage: Social Trepidation

other people get scared of your presence 

Stage 5 Acute Self Doubt

Nagging Self Doubt About Earlier Decision to Become Malevolent

Stage 5 Violent Resoluteness

Embracing identity of a violent predator who hunts human for prey. reached point of
no-return: must become even more ferocious to increase the chances of maintaining their
freedom and survival

FBI Classification: Private ‘Pyle’ Lawerence

Single murder, Homicide-Suicide. (Srg. Hartman, himself) one victim, one single event

FBI Classification: Private Joker

Single murder, mercy killing

FBI Classification: Santana

Serial Murder, whether indirect or direct, he orders hits, he has killed some people, methodical and spaced.

FBI Classification: J.D

kills one inmate that we know of depends on interpretation.

Violentization Process Private Pyle: Stage Brutalization → Epiphany

• Violent Subjugation (Retaliatory):

  • Pyle is bullied and tormented by his fellow recruits after continuous failure.

• Personal Horrification:

  • Humiliated and broken emotionally, especially during the soap-beating scene.

• Violent Coaching (indirect):

  • He learns that becoming a good Marine means embracing violence. Joker and Hartman indirectly coach this idea.

• Violent Epiphany:

  • Final scene in the bathroom: he snaps, arms himself, and kills Hartman. He has accepted violence as his only option

Composite experience: The soap-beating + Hartman’s constant psychological abuse + Joker’s passive encouragement = a psychological collapse, then violent self-assertion.

Private Joker Stage: Defiance → Violent Engagement

• Brutalization (indirect):

  • Observes Pyle’s collapse and the harshness of boot camp.

• Violent Coaching:

  • War teaches him violence is necessary to survive.

• Defiance:

  • He jokes and resists becoming emotionally hardened.

• Violent Epiphany:

  • When he kills the female sniper, he makes the conscious choice to engage in violence—not for revenge, but to end suffering.

• Mitigated Violent Resolution:

  • He does not act out of rage or brutality, but practical necessity—showing restraint.

Private Joker: Composite Experience

Training + warzone + Pyle's suicide = Joker transforms from a resistant observer into a participant in violence, still holding onto some moral ambiguity.

Santana: Stage Virulency → Violent Predation

• Brutalization:

  • Witnesses his father’s death, is raped in juvenile detention—this is extreme Personal Horrification and Violent Subjugation.

• Violent Coaching:

  • Learns to survive in prison by fighting back and commanding violence.

• Violent Epiphany:

  • Understands that power = violence. He fully adopts this.

• Scoring a Major Victory:

  • Rises to power in prison gang culture. Gains Violent Reputation.

• Malignancy / Virulency:

  • Becomes the feared gang leader. No longer mitigates his violence.

• Violent Predation:

  • Uses violence preemptively, not just defensively.

• Acute Self-Doubt:

  • In later scenes, he questions whether his life choices were right. Tries to stop the cycle with younger gang members—but it’s too late.

Santana Composite Experiences:

Childhood trauma + gang violence + prison culture = full evolution into a violent predator, ending in existential self-doubt.

J.D Stage: Virulency

• Brutalization:

  • Grew up in the same violent context. Regular exposure to street and prison violence.

• Violent Coaching:

  • Trained and mentored in violence by older gang members (possibly even Santana).

• Violent Epiphany:

  • Fully embraces violence as identity.

• Scoring Major Victory:

  • Takes part in violent acts to assert gang control.

• Violent Reputation / Social Trepidation:

  • Feared in prison and on the streets.

• Malignancy:

  • Lives for violence; does not question it. No doubt or restraint.

J.D Composite Experience:

Peer pressure, street survival, and prison culture combine into a hardened, violently resolved persona. Unlike Santana, there’s no visible self-doubt.