We learned about homicidal sleep walking in the case of Scott Falater being charged with murder for killing his wife, but how common is it and how is it caused? There have been about 68 cases reported up to the year of 2005 and a few since then. One case is one of Kenneth Park's who was charged with the murder of his mother-in-law after using the sleepwalking defense. Sergeant Willis Boshears confessed to strangling a woman, but claimed to be asleep and only realized what he had done once he awoke. Sleepwalking occurs from deep non-REM slow wave sleep. It is caused by an inappropriate physiological event where the brain tries to exit SWS and immediately wake, whereas in a normal sleeper, the brain gets stuck in between the sleep and wake state. It is really scary to see how such grave crimes can be committed while one is sleeping and they do not understand what they are doing.
This is very interesting – it's scary to see that there are so many cases revolving around such behaviors. How are communities supposed to feel secure when they know that this could possible happen to them, and that the perpetrator of these crimes can use the defense of sleepwalking to get away with murder?
ReplyDelete