The suspect for the 13 February 2015 Las Vegas, Nevada Road Rage shooting is now in custody. Erich Milton Nowsch Jr, 19, - pictured above - was arrested earlier today for the alleged shooting of Tammy Meyers. Meyers passed away on Valentine's Day.
In the light of the escalation of both foreign and domestic terrorism and other malicious acts, much has been made recently of the ability to predict violent behavior. There is, of course, nothing absolute here - no one has a crystal ball. Yet there are significant body language behaviors which are profoundly valuable where threat assessment is concerned. Two of these are discussed below.
Everyone will feel and display the emotions of contempt and disgust from time to time. We're human - we're supposed to experience these - we're allowed. Yet those who CHRONICALLY display either disgust and/or contempt have a significantly increased predilection towards impulse control problems, narcissistic personality disorder and violence. In addition and of profound importance - those who post images and/or videos with nonverbal signals consistent with contempt or disgust on social media are, in a very real way, projecting an even longer-term or hyper-chronic emotion onto the World. It's a big red flag.
There are, of course, other predictors of narcissism, short tempers and violence- yet too often people overlook, minimize or even dismiss others' body language entirely. These are but two nonverbals, yet when displayed for longer durations or especially in the context of social media - they should never be overlooked.
In the image above, displayed on his Facebook page, the suspect of this crime - Erich Milton Nowsch Jr. is projecting a facial expression with nonverbal elements of both disgust and contempt.
See also:
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2656: Threat Assessment during Robbery - Body Language of Perpetrator
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2658: Misidentifying Emotional Expressions - Greece's Golden Dawn Party Arrests - Body Language and Threat Assessment
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2500: Ft. Hood Shooter Nidal Malik Hasan and Contempt The Body Language of Threat Assessment
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2231: A Common Facial Expression of Mass Killers - Using Body Language as a Threat Assessment Tool
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2511: Barack Obama & Vladimir Putin Handshake at 2013 G20 Meeting
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3021: Barack Obama's Executive Action on Immigration - What the President's Body Language Said Before He Even Spoke
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2322: Jeb Bush & Matt Lauer - Which one is the Narcissist? Body Language Red Flags
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2597: Chris Christie's Body Language Tell Regarding Obamacare
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