Sorry for the confusion, I guess I should also exclude natural disasters, accidents, and anything that could be considered the nature of your job. Claire, you don't have to vote, but if you want to you could select 'other' and then clarify.

What I'm searching for is people who behave badly and why they behave badly.

Batgirl, that is an excellent point about the polling options. The reason I want you to choose only one option is because I want your opinion on what was the major factor in their destructive behavior. In your case I imagine you would select severe mental illness, as my impression from your stories is that your stepdad wouldn't have done this had he not developed PTSD from service in the military.

What brought this up is in part due to my interest (obsession?) in human behavior... most notably my interest trauma, abuse, and mental illness. I recently volunteered for a Domestic Offender Re-education program. The program teaches domestic offenders how to relate to their children in healthy ways, in hopes that they can gradually (with initial supervision) resume their parental roles. One of the coordinators expressed the opinion that the reason these people behave that way is because it is how their parents behaved, it is simply all they know. The program then serves to teach them a new way of being for the benefit of their child.

I interpreted this opinion as "Parents abuse their children because they are ignorant and do not know any better." I'm curious to learn about destructive people and why they are destructive, especially about people who know their behavior is harmful.