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Part II – Fragile Ego, Fierce Predator: Brief Psychological Overview of the Psychologically Violent Personality’s use of Shame and Guilt

31 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in Domestic Violence, Personality Disorders, Psychological Abuse, Stalking and Predator Behavior, Victim rescue & Recovery

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~by Amy Lynn Burch

Published on March 31, 2014 @ 8:23pm EST

“One concrete way in which we all landscape our sanity is by having our experience of reality confirmed by others. When our experience of reality is disconfirmed by others, our confidence in our own sanity can be undermined.” ~Graeme Galton, Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder

 

An emotional bully will exploit trust at every possible turn. In fact, exploiting trust is their primary method of control. They demand trust without question and then use the victim’s trust against them in order to gain power. They demand absolute trust while simultaneously refusing accountability in terms of proving trustworthiness. They feel obliged to gain every advantage over their victims without providing anything in terms of equity to their targets. If at risk of exposure, and then cornered, the psychologically violent personality will flatly refuse to answer direct questions in which they must admit the truth, sometimes ignoring and redirecting the conversation entirely. Not that redirection, in and of itself is inherently bad. Redirection is often a useful tool for the average non-diabolical personality to steer away from uncomfortable topics. However, for the psychologically violent personality, redirection is a combative tactic. Better stated, they are offended by and refuse to acknowledge inconvenient questions, an utterly diabolical move which exposes the liar without so much as a word of corroboration on the part of the abuser.

It isn’t uncommon for the bully to demand trust from their victims while shaming and blaming them for exhibiting rightful distrust of the abuser. The mere act of suggesting to the bully that his or her exploitative behavior is wrong tends to send the bully on a full frontal assault of sorts against their targets using shaming and manipulative language against their target(s) in order to put them on the defensive. If they can keep their victim(s) on the defensive then the abuser maintains power and control over the situation. The bully may use a combination of overt and covert shaming messages such as:

“You really need to get over your trust issues.”

“Why are you so suspicious and paranoid all the time?”

“I can’t talk to you when you get like this!”

Emotional bullies fail miserably at making the connection between their own deceptive behaviors and abject lack of honesty with their victim’s legitimate issues of trust. It cannot be overstated that bullies believe that they deserve absolute trust without question regardless of how many times they’ve deliberately betrayed their victim’s trust boundaries. They do not understand that trust is a byproduct of honesty and that where there is no honesty there can be no trust. This truth applies to all relationships including, but not limited to: business; romantic; and parent-to-child relationships. It is primarily parent-to-child relationships that we will focus on for the next two postings, current posting included.

Beyond The Mask of Sanity

Similar to Munchhausen by Proxy in which the perpetrator is desperate for admiration at the expense of ones child’s health and well-being, emotionally abusive parents are often desperate to appear to the general public as saintly and long suffering. This also applies to the emotionally violent intimate partner. In truth, these so-called upstanding model parents and mates are often the most heinous of abusers. The most devious are often mothers who see their children as an inconvenience and/or merely as tools used to gain sympathy. The mother whose motivation to have children is so that someone will love her is a red flag indicator of a potential emotional/physical abuser.

The emotional bully’s oversensitivity makes her an emotionally, and sometimes physically violent predator. She is typically motivated by two things: revenge for perceived wrongs; and getting her own way in every situation no matter how trivial. Everything is a contest and they simply must win. When boundaries are imposed on the emotional abuser they turn their focus to seeking revenge at any cost. It isn’t uncommon for the abuser to fake changed behavior even for long periods of time in order to accomplish their goal of evening the score against their target. They will often set out on elaborate schemes which include mimicking sanity, compassion, kindness, sincerity, guilt, and remorse for the sole purpose of catching their intended target off guard so they can deliver the killing blow, so to speak.

No matter how remorseful an emotional bully appears to be on the surface their internal motivation remains unchanged. It is for this reason that an emotional bully should never be trusted. Their entire motivation for gaining and regaining their victims trust after it has been lost is so that they can continue to exploit their victims for their own selfish purposes. It isn’t uncommon for the emotional bully to openly shame their victim for having trust issues without ever acknowledging that their behavior is the cause behind the mistrust. Emotional bullies work very hard to make their prey look irrational to the outside world and openly blame their victims as though their concerns were somehow created in a vacuum (see Gaslighting for more information).

Tools of the Trade: Shame and Guilt

Imposing inappropriate shame and guilt as a means of control for not complying with demands is a common tactic of an emotional abuser and is routinely used against victims regardless of age. However, this tactic works particularly well against children, unfortunately, as abusers well know. Shaming messages are extraordinarily powerful and have a dramatic negative affect on children. However, children are not the only ones susceptible to such abuses. Kind, yet gullible, personalities which appear child-like and trusting regardless of biological age are a hot target for psychological abusers. This is one of the reasons why dominant personalities tend to seek-out compliant souls on which to perpetrate their diabolical abuses, because they know that they can emotionally manipulate the compliant personality into inappropriate guilt very easily.

Before I go any further it should be noted that not all guilt is bad. Guilt, in its proper place, is a necessary emotion designed to correct inappropriate behavior. For example, hurting someone for entertainment value should elicit feelings of guilt in the emotionally stable and well developed person. If it doesn’t then it indicates something deeply wrong within a person’s psyche along the lines of lack of empathy which is no minor deficit. It is true that children must learn empathy but most children understand this inherently with proper feelings of guilt the indicator.  Just as stealing a personal possession from another person should impose feelings of guilt, so too should inflicting verbal abuses at another person elicit feelings of guilt in an otherwise healthy person. Guilt in this scenario is designed to point out the wrong behavior to the wrongdoer for the purpose of correcting the behavior in the future. As regards childrearing, many young parents fail to understand the necessity of this emotion e.g., appropriate guilt, in raising their children and seek to save their children from all negative feelings which create a host of character flaws in developing children which could lead to full-blown psychological disorders as they mature. However, that is a topic for another blog post. It does, however, go hand in hand with some parents’ unintentionally nurturing narcissistic bullies who very likely could grow-up to be psychologically violent personalities. All in all that is a very simplified explanation of a complex emotion but the average person reading this will understand the concept. Emotional abusers refuse to accept guilt as a correcting tool as applied to themselves yet do not hesitate to use it as an inappropriately imposed tool of manipulation against others in order to get their own way.

Children of emotional bullies are at particular risk of enduring years of pervasive abuse with little if any outside intervention. Over time, an abused child will likely begin to accept the abuse as normal having nothing in terms of healthy examples by way of comparison. The risk to them is that as they mature they tend to seek our familiar relationships not unlike what they have experienced at home thereby inadvertently repeating the abuse. If left uncorrected, the child will carry the abusive dynamic into adulthood either as a repeat victim or as an abuser. In some cases, they become both dependant on the relationship in question.

“Don’t Criticize My Parenting Style”

Abusive parents and especially those who resort to emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuse have the power to isolate and dominate their children not only deliberately keeping them away from help but also using their children as a shield of sorts against accountability. Simply stated, egocentric, selfish, demanding, and callous people have absolutely no tolerance for providing children with proper nutrition, emotional stability, love, and safety or any provision of basic human needs because it detracts from their overall self-absorbed goals of unconditional admiration, attention, absolute control and dominance over their environment. Although there are some children who are difficult personalities from birth, emotionally abused children exhibit certain behaviors which, to the trained eye, point to an abusive home life.  Anyone who comes close to examining the truth of the matter behind a seemingly erratic child’s behavior is seen as an exposure risk to the abuser.

If the abuser cannot control and manipulate the questioning party then all ties are cut and the child who typically has no power in the relationship is kept away from those who might very well be able to intervene in, and then stop, the abuse. If confronted, the psychologically violent parent may lean on the excuse of having a different “parenting style” which shouldn’t be criticized. It is normal to some degree to not want to receive correction but the chronic avoidance of correction is a huge red flag that should not be ignored.

Work It, Own It, Utterly Annihilate It

When children are taught from their earliest development to accept emotionally abusive behavior, they will carry that tendency toward acceptance of bad behavior into adulthood thus inviting into their lives the very abuse which they’ve sought to escape. If a child is taught that it is their responsibility to take care of one or more parents feelings and wellbeing at the expense of their own then they will learn to devalue their own very real basic needs and then will chronically acquiesce to the demands of bullies. This is a form of learned helplessness which if instilled in a child during their early formative years and reinforced through coercion becomes ingrained before adulthood. Children are particularly vulnerable to this form of abuse. Most children naturally seek approval and acceptance of parents or other parental authority figures. Abusive parents waste no time exploiting this tendency, willfully using it to their advantage.

Emotionally abusive parents do not hesitate to use their children’s reactive behaviors as a shield against the underlying cause, e.g., sadistically insidiously psychologically abusive injury. Make no mistake: not all abuse leaves a physical mark and it is the abuse that occurs absent physical scarring that is often the most violently wielded by abusive personalities. For the abused, the wounds and scars are long-lasting which are compounded by the absence of physical proof, with abusers who remain unpunished for their crimes that typically remain in the victim’s life.

No Body, No Crime

Emotional abusers are cunning enough to never abuse their victims in the presence of others, at least not intentionally. The only known exceptions are those who abuse in the presence of fellow abusers or in the presence of weak personalities who will say nothing to preserve their own safety. Using spoken words as their primary tool of abuse offers the abuser the luxury of denial as a means of protection from responsibility when confronted. The simple act of denial coupled with a carefully structured exterior façade is all that is needed for an abuser to continue their psychologically violent assaults on their prey. They will either outright deny that an abusive conversation ever took place or will deliberately misremember the conversation to their advantage. Emotional abusers would rather rewrite history than to tell the truth and will omit entire events which they know will expose their behavior if admitted. They will disregard the conversation to others as “I can’t be responsible for how he/she chooses to hear information” or “I can’t be responsible for what you choose to feel” all the while knowing that their victim has the correct information without the power to prove what was said.

It is important to note that the very act of denial is confirmation that the abuser knows what they’ve done is wrong. Otherwise, why carefully omit the incriminating information entirely? They are cunning and diabolical enough to know that without an outside witness willing to corroborate the truth, all that are necessary to avoid responsibility and perpetuate the abuse is denial and silence. Again, although anyone can be a victim of this method of abuse, children are particularly susceptible and at risk for not being believed as a result of the cunningly abusive parent who can tailor the narrative in their own favor.

Next week we will continue to examine the psychologically violent personality as parent while transitioning to other issues within abusive relationships. I welcome your questions, comments, and even criticism as long as it’s respectful. As always, thank you for your readership. You are not alone.

~Amy

© Amy Lynn Burch 2014
All Rights Reserved
No part of this work or webpage or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated by the author for stand-alone materials.

Fragile Ego, Fierce Predator: the Psychologically Violent Personality

18 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by in Domestic Violence, Psychological Abuse

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~by Amy Lynn Burch

Published on January 18, 2014 @ 11:40pm EST

“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.” ~Maya Angelou

Emotional abusers never think they are. At least they never openly acknowledge that fact to anyone, not even themselves. Although emotional bullies may know it instinctively on a deeply intimate inner level, they predictably refuse to take an honest look at who they truly are and set about victimizing others for the purpose of personal validation and gratification. Hurting others isn’t merely entertaining for the emotional bully; it’s necessary to their very existence. Before you become wrapped around the axles, as it were, regarding my use of the word necessary let me clarify that necessary in this instance simply means “required behavior for the abuser to exist as such” and not “we need bullies in order to balance the universe” which is at the very least a ridiculous and nonsensical notion. Think of it in terms of the mythical vampire. Just as a vampire must drain life blood from their victims in order to exist, emotional bullies must drain their victim’s of energy, control, self-worth, autonomy, and personal validation in order to maintain dominant bully status. The word “boundary” isn’t in the bully vocabulary. Having a boundary is a foreign concept to the emotional abuser. They find the word offensive considering that having a boundary limits the activity of the abuser in terms of taking from their victims whatever they choose. Ahhh, there’s the rub!

An emotional bully is quite literally the definition of a pirate i.e. take everything of value, neither leave nor give anything in return. It isn’t so much that emotional bullies lack self worth as a motivation to drain their surroundings of any and all worth as it is that they tend to be the grandiose opposite of a selfless person with an inflated sense of importance and entitlement. In contrast, their carefully chosen prey unintentionally motivates the bully to obliterate those in his or her path who attempt to call them out and then stop them. Incredibly long sentence, I know, and accurate in description. Emotional abusers – bullies, if you will – work very, very hard at lying to everyone around them and to build a façade of narcissistic dominance, especially so to two persons in particular: first and foremost, their intended victims; and secondly, yet more importantly, themselves. Being of fragile ego, the emotional bully loathes him or herself as the case may be, to an inherently destructive degree which is what makes them such diabolically fierce predators.

As you continue to read you’ll notice that I use he/she and his/her interchangeably. The reason for this is simple. Although a large body of empirical data and professional writings regarding domestic violence and abusive behavior focuses largely on men as abusers and women as victims, the fact remains that not all victims are women and not all abusers are men. Women do, in fact, emotionally abuse others significantly so and very often their intended targets are their own children, spouses, and even friends whom they truly envy and wish to degrade thus the creation of the word “frenemy.” If your definition of abuser is synonymous with being male then I invite you to set aside that notion and consider that not all abusiveness follows traditional gender roles and most certainly is not limited to physical abuse. Neither is it relegated to overt methods of non-physical violence such as screaming, name calling, and verbal threats of possible physical violence in response to lack of compliance. Those forms of abuse are, indeed, reprehensible. However, there is a more insidious form of abuse that fails to leave physical marks which is often as elusive as vapor in terms of pinning it down that I contend is as much, if not more so in some ways, more deadly over time than some physical acts of violence: emotional, psychological, and spiritual abuses fall into this category. The abuse that leaves no tell-tale signs not only leaves the victim injured but also leaves the victim invalidated as the burden of proof rests entirely on their proverbial shoulders.  In reading this I hope that you gain insight into all of your relationships and not just the romantic ones. Truly, abusiveness can be found in the most unlikely of places leading us into even more abusive situations unless we learn to appropriately identify them wherever they might be found. Very many of them begin within a victim’s own family of origin with the abusive behaviors becoming normalized as accepted behavior.

To all of my readers regardless of age or gender it is my intention to offer you true hope and healthy guidelines in identifying then breaking fee of abusive relationships. The first step toward that end is in learning to appropriately identify them as such which is why I write on the subject so often. However, to my male readers in particular who find themselves in abusive relationships whether those relationships exist at work, at home, at church, or some combination thereof, I offer you this: there is hope and you are not alone. And to the abusers reading this article (because I know that many of you do for the specific purpose of gaining information to use against your victims) I say this: welcome to my spotlight of exposure. In case you’ve failed to notice, I’m something of an in-your-face advocate on behalf of the abused. I will not stay silent so that you can remain comfortable.

Emotional Terrorists 

Emotional bullies are abusers, ipso facto. Emotional bullies tend to be over-sensitized to their own feelings to the exclusion of others and also tend to confuse their wants for needs which they demand that others meet instantly and routinely or else. It is the “or else” threat which becomes the unseen knife in the hand of the emotional bully as waved in the face of the victim. To say that emotional bullies are impatient with their own discomfort is an understatement as they have no tolerance for not having their way at all times and very much at the expense of others. In that way, they are significantly infantile and emotionally immature. Like psychopaths – and many emotional bullies are, indeed, psychopathic – emotional bullies have malformed emotions often limited to proto-emotions which are nothing more than primitive responses to the most basic of human needs. As Dr. Robert Hare states in his groundbreaking book Without Conscience regarding the psychopathic personality,

“paint-by-numbers emotions are all that exist for this type of abuser in terms of recognizing emotions in others as well as feeling anything personally in terms of legitimate human emotion.”

Guilt for perceived wrongs committed and empathy for someone else’s pain are non-existent to the emotional abuser. To the emotional bully/abuser, the victim only exists as an extension of the abuser for the direct purpose of meeting his or her wants which are confused for needs.

Emotional bullies are master manipulators who are highly adept at wearing down the will of their victims through shame (how could you let me down like this/I need someone to stand beside me and not run in fear), goading (I guess you just don’t have what it takes to be my friend/business partner/lover, etc.), needling (if you’re too scared to “xyz” then I’ll find someone else), guilt-tripping (someone who cares about me would [fill in the blank]; you always let me down when I need you the most), charm (you’re such a brave person, I know you wouldn’t disappoint me like so-and-so), bribes (do this and I’ll buy you [fill-in-the-blank item]), and tactics of public humiliation (in a public setting, “Tim told everyone that I’m a bad wife…” *sniff* *sniff*).

Emotional bullies are highly adept at conditioning their prey to excuse away abusive behavior and force compliance with their own abusiveness. Emotional bullies – and at this point, let’s just call them what they are: abusers and emotional terrorists– are inherently deceitful people who are highly skilled at turning the tables, as it were, on their prey. I insist on calling the victim “prey” because that is how the abuser sees their victim(s). Destroy and consume is the ultimate goal for this type of abuser.

Emotional bullies refuse to acknowledge any wrongdoing and instead project guilt onto others for not complying with their demands. An emotional abuser works very hard at manipulating the sensitivity and empathy of their intended victims as a means of making the abused feel responsible for the abusers infantile emotions. They refuse to move past their own primitive needs and wants, and routinely refuse to alter their desires while deliberately ignoring the very real needs of others. It is this behavior that makes emotional abusers exceptionally dangerous parents and intimate partners.

In the next six weeks I will breakdown for the reader the psychology of the emotional terrorist outlining specific tactics that they use against their targets, how they think, and the tools they use to gain control, their primary motivations, how they interact as parents and as intimate partners, and what their victims can do to stop the cycle of abuse. As always, I am here to answer questions and provide resources to those needing help.

Thank you for your readership. You are not alone.

~Amy

© Amy Lynn Burch 2014
All Rights Reserved
No part of this work or webpage or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated by the author for stand-alone materials.

When “Motivation” Becomes a Four-Letter Ten Letter Word

27 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by in Stalking and Predator Behavior, Steubenville Rape Case

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There is a repeated question in my mind regarding this whole Steubenville Rape case debacle and Alexandria “Prinnie” Goddard’s involvement therein which is: why is she interested in this case and how did she initially learn about it to begin with?  On the surface I can understand why she might be outraged at the allegations of gang rape by certain Steubenville High School football players. Considering the alleged circumstances, who wouldn’t be?  However, something about Alexandria “Prinnie” Goddard’s tone in blogging about the Steubenville Rape case and the allegations of wrongdoing from the very beginning have bothered me. It wasn’t until this morning while I sat quietly drinking my coffee that it suddenly occurred to me that this so-called Prinne-the-investigative-blogger might have a personal interest in this case, other than claims of wanting justice for the alleged victim.  Furthermore, perhaps seeking notoriety at the expense of the victim and the accused is not her only goal?  No, I think not.  There’s an underlying current in her pursuit of this case that so far has lacked definition and I believe that it just might be personal in nature.

As a private investigator and as a student of human behavior, I have learned through experience to follow the evidence wherever it may lead. Conversely, and more importantly I have also learned to not lead the evidence wherever I may wish it to end.  As a result, it is my job to uncover facts and to present those facts as they appear and not as the client perhaps wants them to appear.  Truthfully, this is one of the more difficult aspects of my job. Without becoming too technical or diverting from the original focus of this commentary I’ll simply state that it can often be the case that the information I find in the course and scope of my job very often is not what the client expects or wants to hear. As human beings we are all subject to personal bias but as an investigator, I have to set that aside which can be difficult for clients who insist that “xyz” is true and demand that I corroborate their assumptions by tailoring the facts to fit their personal bias. I don’t do that. Why? Because professionally I have a legal and ethical mandate to report the truth.  When I testify in court regarding a particular case I testify to the facts and not my personal opinion. Simply stated, my personal opinion regarding a case or cases, as well as the case participants, does not matter.  What matters are the facts, the truth, and what information can be corroborated. End of story. So, what does this have to do with Alexandria “Prinnie” Goddard and the Steubenville Rape case?  I’m so glad that you asked.

Let’s go back to the beginning when Alexandria “Prinnie” Goddard, or whatever she’s calling herself this week, enlisted the help of Joey Ortega in pursuing the investigation of the Steubenville Rape case.  Prinnie has insisted all along that had it not been for her “reporting” about the Steubneville Rape case then “nothing would have been done and no one would know about the case!”  But is that true?  No, it isn’t.  Prinnie herself can be heard on the August 31, 2012 Behind The Yellow Tape episode in which it is clearly stated that the person who initially reported on this case was David Bloomquist, better known as sportscaster and radio personality Bloomdaddy in Ohio.  For the record, it was Bloomquist that insisted that local media in Ohio cover the case, not Prinnie. Why is this important? It’s important because Prinnie’s focus throughout this entire investigation has been on promoting herself for bringing this case to media attention. I can almost hear the collective Internet sign from my readership, ”What difference does it make who was first with the story?” Whine, whine, whine. But it does matter and this why: if Prinnie cannot be honest and accurate with minor details that some may consider insignificant e.g. who was first to report, then how can she be trusted to report accurately the larger and more significant facts that are pertinent to this case?  Ahhhh… yes. The devil is, indeed, in the details. Prinnie has taken credit for a lot in terms of popularizing and sensationalizing this case but very little, if any, responsibility in distorting the facts and potentially damaging the chances for justice to prevail in this case. Motivation is the point.

Why isn’t anyone questioning Prinnie’s lack of objectivity in her so-called reporting regarding the Steubenville Rape case.  Furthermore, what of her flagrant and unsupported accusations against the “football culture” in Steubenville, and specifically against Cody Saltsman? I understand that Cody made some spectacularly grotesque comments on his Twitter regarding who we assume to be the Steubenville Rape victim; however, why did Prinnie feel justified in stating on her blog:

“students by day … gang rape participants by night,” Goddard wrote, “Cody Saltsman [is] playing tonight. Reno, SHAME ON YOU.”

and encouraging other football players to “roll” on particular teammates

“roll on their pal Cody Manson”

and

“[p]erhaps when scumbag is finally arrested I will post a picture of him for his mother that says ‘How do you like your scumbag son now?’ … Tell Cody not to feel too bad, he is not the lone asshole in all this.”

The above comments were the subject of the lawsuit against Prinnie that she likes to claim was dismissed with prejudice which is correct but that isn’t a unilateral legal statement of Prinnie’s innocence.  From what I understand, the dismissal with prejudice was more a stroke of luck for Prinnie and unrelated to her specific comments toward Cody Saltsman.  Of course, I may have that wrong but research seems to indicate that this is true. Anyone with documentation to the contrary is encouraged to share it. Regardless, and again I ask, why isn’t anyone questioning Prinnie’s lack of objectivity in relation to this case and her – in this writer’s opinion – gross negligence in investigating the facts before seeking tabloid notoriety in the name of justice for the victim? Me thinks that something is rotten in Denmark (thank you, Shakespeare).

According to David Bloomquist, everyone knows everyone in the Ohio valley.  Understanding that Prinnie is from Ohio and reportedly still lives there, I would assume that this applies to her, as well.  If this is true then I wonder, who does she know in relation to this case and why is she so insistent on demonizing and entire football team at the expense of the victim?  Reading her blog posts on this case particularly of late would make any thinking person wonder why she feels so personally involved.  Why does it matter to Prinnie and why taunt Cody Saltsman’s mother in such a hateful manner?  If my information is correct, Prinnie is from Ohio so it would seem from the outside looking in that she has an axe to grind with the community of Steubenville, or particular persons therein. I wonder what that might be.

Let me state emphatically that I’m not suggesting that this case does not deserve national attention. However, more than national attention, the victim in this case deserves justice and what has all of Prinnie’s blustering accomplished to that end?  Nothing.  Not only nothing but also potentially the opposite. It seems to me that this is a point chronically lost on Prinnie as she continues to call attention to herself and not the facts of the case. As I pondered this point this morning it occurred to me, is she using this case to get even with someone in her own personal life for some perceived wrong? Hmmmm… one wonders. How did she hear about the case in the first place?  If the media wasn’t covering the story then how did she find out about it and why the immediate leap to blame football culture for a cover up? Those are merely questions of course and not specific accusations but still I wonder why others are not openly questioning her underlying motivations. It would appear that not one bit of Prinnie’s attention seeking behavior has been about ensuring justice for the victim; quite the opposite, in fact.  Her behavior has been pointed directly at herself.

I should take this opportunity to remind everyone that Prinnie is a blogger, not a journalist. She has a glaring gap in skills and credibility to be considered an actual investigative journalist.  Did she interview anyone without personal bias to acquire facts in this case? Maybe in the beginning but as of late, it does not appear so. Was she objective in her blogging? No. Did she report the known facts from both sides? No. What she did do was attach herself to an actual investigator with a long history of critical thinking skills and objective assessment of case facts, Joey Ortega. She stood behind his skill and reputation as an investigator then ran and hid like a child when the proverbial excrement hit the fan.  This is not the behavior of a skilled investigator but, rather, it is that of an attention seeking weak personality.

With all of her vindictive behavior one might think that Prinnie has a personal interest in seeing Steubenville and its residents suffer harm.  I contend that it just might be the case that Prinnie has a score to settle and is using an alleged rape victim to accomplish that goal. There’s a difference between working toward legal justice for a crime committed and publicly humiliating alleged perpetrators AND the victim.  It would appear by her own actions that Prinnie’s focus is the latter rather than the former. Maybe that wasn’t her intention but that has certainly been the result.

It has yet to be proven as fact what exactly occured on the night of August 11, 2012 and the accusations of rape at this point are precisely that; accusations. True, two individuals have been charged with rape of the victim but nothing has been proven in a court of law, yet.  Therefore, the term alleged is used for both protection of the victim and the accused. What is more is that because of Prinnie’s machinations in what this writer believes was deliberate manipulation by her an her cohorts of an Anonymous-wannbe to further her personal agenda, the accused in the Steubenville Rape case will be rushed to trial within the next thirty days. Evidence has potentially been tainted, the victims identity compromised, and insofar as I understand it, a change of venue has been requested because this case cannot receive unadulterated and unbiased attention.

What I would like to know is who on earth does Alexandria “Prinnie” Goddard think she is to be parading around the details of this case at the expense of the victim? This is real life and not some poorly scripted made for TV movie! Unfortunately, it would appear that Prinnie and her audience cannot tell the difference between the two which only drives her further into the spotlight at the expense of the truth.  Using a photo of a young girl’s sexual violation online to promote herself, then to openly claim that she wants to help the victim is beyond the pale. What gives her the right to violate this girl’s privacy?  Did she even to bother to consult the victim’s family before going off half-cocked  as it were, in her quest to make a name for herself?  Not likely! Also, why does she throw stones and then hide when things become complicated? Again, I point to lack of skill and professionalism.

Finally, there is something that bothers me about this Alexandria “Prinnie” Goddard even further. Why has she used so many different names in her quest to build a believable reputation as an investigator over the years?  For someone who claims to have ten years of experience in crime investigative blogging she certainly changes identities abruptly and haphazardly.  She’s known by Alexandria Goddard, Alex Goddard, Stacy Goddard, Princess, Prinnie, and who knows what else.  Why so many identities in her pursuit for what I believe to be fame?  What is she hiding or is she running from something? Perhaps both? It’s one thing to hone ones image over time for professional reasons but to completely (and repeatedly) shun one identity for another is what we professional investigators refer to as a “giant red flag” potentially pointing toward deliberate deception.

It occurs to me that it must be a full-time job keeping up with all of her pretentious online identities and this is something to which I cannot relate.  It’s a full-time job for me to simply be myself. I wouldn’t be able to earn a living if I had to hide behind a plethora of fake identities. When does she have time to lead a real life or conduct a thorough investigation?  Who is she really and what in the grand scheme of things is her true internal motivation, particularly in the Steubenville Rape case?  To her followers who keep up with my blog, and I know you’re out there, perhaps you should be asking precisely the same questions rather than blindly following her lead.

As a side note, I would like to point out that the town of Steubenville and its authorities have been forthcoming insofar as professionally and legally permitted in dealing with Joey Ortega as respects this investigation which casts significant doubt on the claims by Prinnie of widespread corruption. For whatever reason the town of Steubenville appears to be the unfair target of Prinnie’s misguided desire to expose corruption. It would seem clear that the only villain in this story who is clearly working under the veil of corruption is Alexandria “Prinnie” Goddard and her allies. Pot, kettle, black.

~Amy

© Amy Lynn Burch 2008 – 2013
All Rights Reserved

No part of this work or webpage or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated by the author for stand-alone materials. 

January is National Stalking Awareness Month

10 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized

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It has been a productive yet challenging week.  Even so, how did it get to be Thursday already?  I have decided to step away from the Steubenville debacle for this week due to other obligations and will return to that subject next week.

For this week, or what’s left of it, as well as the remainder of the month, I will be focusing on the crime of stalking and providing resources on the subject to my readers.  Today’s entry will be short and… well, I was going to write “sweet” but that would be inappropriate.  “Scary” would be a better word.

I will return to writing longer articles next week. For now, I give you the follow statics and facts regarding the stalker:

RECON STUDY OF STALKERS

• 2/3 of stalkers pursue their victims at least once per week, many daily, using more than one method.

• 78% of stalkers use more than one means of approach.

• Weapons are used to harm or threaten victims in 1 out of 5 cases.

• Almost 1/3 of stalkers have stalked before.

• Intimate partner stalkers frequently approach their targets, and their behaviors escalate quickly.

Reference:
Mohandie, K. (2006). The RECON Typology of Stalking: Reliability and Validity Based upon a Large Sample of North American Stalkers,” Journal of Forensic Sciences, 51, no. 1

If you or someone you know is being stalked or is in a potentially dangerous situation which could result in domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at:
1 (800) 799-SAFE or 1 (800) 799 – 7233