Earlier today, I came across an article on CNN.com, titled “Do You Think You Could Spot a Killer?” by Abbie Boudreau. The article used Steven Kazmierczak as a reference, since he was the culprit behind the mass shooting at The Northern Illinois University campus on February 14, 2008, leaving six dead and eighteen injured. According to the article, Steven Kazmierczak was a one time sociology major at The Northern Illinois University who later went to study social work as a graduate student at The University of Illinois. As referenced from the article, “He was surrounded by professors who studied criminology and were experts in criminal behavior. His friends were also counselors-in-training.” Some of the people closest to Steven Kazmierczak were asked if prior to the shooting, did they think he was capable of mass murder, and they said “they never saw it coming”; however, two of the people closest to him, a college friend and professor, revealed their knowledge of his obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiousness, and fixation with anti-depressants. Abbie Boudreau, the author of the CNN.com article, went on to pose this question, “It makes me think that if a group of criminologists and counselors in training didn’t pick up on what some people would call “warning signs”, then what luck would an average person have at detecting strange behavior?”

About a year after the murderous incident, police records revealed that Steven Kazmierczak had a history of attempted suicides, had been temporarily treated for mental illness in 1998, and per Wikipedia, as reported by his girlfriend, his behavior became more erratic in the weeks leading up to the shooting, as he discontinued his prescription drugs, i.e. Prozac, etc…

After reading about Steven Kazmierczak and pondering about the question Abbie Boudreau posed in her article, “Do You Think You Could Spot a Killer?”, I ask, “Do you think you could spot a person capable of abuse? Do you think you could spot a pedophile? Do you think you could spot anyone with any sinister intent?”. Most of the time, we are so bogged down with our own personal ventures and issues that we tend to overlook obvious psychological personality disorders in others (i.e. schizoid personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, obsessive compulsive personality disorder, antisocial disorder, etc…), especially in those close to us; and when we do recognize the signs and summon up the bravery to do something about it, like report your worries to law enforcement, you’re usually turned away, because it seems it takes “a person to act, before you react”.

Steven Kazmierczak

For further reading on personality disorders, refer to this book:
Family Treatment of Personality Disorders: Advances in Clinical Practice (paperback), by MacFarlane, Malcolm M. (Author)