What is your take on the Chris Benoit tragedy?

[lovelace]

Do you think this really is a steroid rage or is it being blown out of context and just a freak incident?

[vince148]

This is something that I've posted on other threads. I know that there have been back and forth comments as to whether or not steroids played a role in this. I can't say whether they did or didn't. However, based on my knowledge of domestic violence through my wife, my opinion is that Benoit already had the characteristics of being an abuser.

I'll chime in on this just a little as my wife has done a lot of volunteer work with domestic violence and battered women. In fact, she facillitated groups for battered women for three years and spoke to many county agencies, prosecuters and judges on domestic violence. The truth is that you would most likely never know abusive men by just meeting them. Most batterers come off as quite friendly and likeable. In fact, 80% of abusive men will come off as easy going likeable men if you were to meet them on the street. Unfortunately, they are quite different in the home. The other problem that arises in abusive relationships is fear of what the abusive person would do to the spouse/children should the victim want to leave the relationship and/or prosecute. It is not uncommon for victims to remain in these situations because the abuser has threatened them with severe consequences should they try to leave or prosecute. This is why many battered women remain in these unhealthy relationships and why most demostic violence disputes are seldom prosecuted or charges even brought up. Another statistic of domestic violence is that women will leave and return to these abusive relationships as many as 9 times or more. To continue, most batterers will also display symptoms of being abusive even before they actually get to where they act out violently. Control, manipulation, extreme jealousy and making the relationship all about themself. Another interesting fact is that most abusers have jobs/careers that are power oriented. In fact, policemen and military personnel have one of the highest rates of incidents for being abusive.

So, when you consider the profile and dynamics of domestic violence, it really appears that Benoit fits in this quite well.

[pitbull]

The news this morning said that his entry on Wikipedia was updated hours before the murder/suicide by someone with the news of the murder/suicide. So, if he did it, this was premeditated, not a "roid rage".