On July 19, 2008, Eric Tavulares strangled his childhood sweetheart, Lauren Aljubouri. According to Milwaukee Police, Tavulares stated he and Aljubouri had been watching Natural Born Killers, and about halfway through the movie they stopped and went to bed:
“He stated he does not recall exactly what happened next,” the complaint says, “but something caused him to switch mentally and he rolled over on Lauren Aljubouri and he began strangling her.”
Within three or four minutes, Tavulares said, Aljubouri was dead.
Lauren Aljubouri’s murder is a terrible tragedy, but what struck me most about this story are reports that Eric Tavulares grew up in a house where domestic violence had become a pattern:
Early in 2005, Kathy Tavulares was back at the county courthouse asking for a temporary restraining order against Richard, whom she described as her husband. This time, she related an incident in which he had threatened to beat Eric because the boy behaved rudely.
“When stressed, he becomes violent and combative,” she wrote of Richard. “I am very concerned that he will harm me and/or my children.”
Studies have found that 30% of male child witnesses of domestic abuse become abusers as adults, and it’s unfortunate that Eric Tavulares ended up as one of those 30%. Tavulares is charged with first-degree reckless homicide, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 60 years in prison if convicted.
Would not the risk be greater (70%) if one had not witnessed domestic abuse.
Really the faux science that comes up with this drivel is humorous at best. The fact that he was in a mental institution at 15, hints at that he had serious psychological problems irregardless of the domestic violence.
Or could it be that him witnessing the violence caused the institutionalization?
Children who grow up in a violent home would one way or another affect their way of thinking and associating with other people.
Growing up in a violent home would affect the children – one way or another – and their way of thinking and associating with other people as they grow older.
Growing up in a violent home is not an excuse to abuse someone else, although it is a frequent excuse in domestic abuse situations. Growing up in a home where violence is a normal occurance will have a profound effect on a person, however…at some point a person becomes responsible for their own actions. At some point one realizes that the violence is not ok, and they make a choice to change or not. They make a choice to get help on their own or not. Because help was forced on this guy in the institution does not mean that he used the help. If he was not mentally capable of recovery, one would think the drs would have caught that.