99). Brewster (2000), looking specifically at the question of how threatening language and physical violence are related in intimate relationships. Looking at hundreds of individuals involved in intimate relationships that included verbal threats, some of which went on to include physical violence, she also found that there is a clear cycle of dynamics between the individuals, in which verbal threats generally intermingle with physical violence and in which certain actions such as stalking bridge the difference between threats and action, since stalking can be considered to be an expressive act more like speech (that is, threats) than like physical violence.
Ferstl, Rinck, & Von Cramon (2005) examined neurolinguistic patterns that show up when threatening language and the accompanying emotions are felt by individuals and found that there are in fact signatures on a neurolinguistic level of assessment of threats. Their fMRI analysis on individuals demonstrated that their subjects reacted quite differently (in terms of which areas of their brains were activated) when presented...
Rather, in different subsets of human relationships (emergency room treatments, intimate relationships), there are predictable cycles that can be assessed and recognized as key patterns in which verbal threats lead to violence.
References
Brewster, M.P. Stalking by Former Intimates: Verbal Threats and Other Predictors of Physical Violence. Violence and Victims 15(1): 41-54.
Ferstl, E.C., Rinck, M. & Von Cramon, Y. (2005). Emotional and Temporal Aspects of Situation Model Processing during Text Comprehension: An Event-Related fMRI Study. Journal of Cognitive Science 17(5): 724-739.
Novak, a. & Hubbell, K. (Ed.). (2002). Emergency Care Technician Curriculum. New York: Jones and Bartlett.
