Cyrus Jones Case Study

For this paper I chose an article about a college football player that was arrested for domestic violence. According to ABC News and NBC Sports, Cyrus Jones was arrested on April 29th, 2015 for an assault that had occurred the night before. Cyrus Jones had damaged a female’s phone and also had threatened to assault her in front of a witness. Cyrus Jones was arrested and charged with Domestic Violence 3rd Degree Harassment and Domestic Violence 3rd Degree Criminal Mischief. In this article there is not a lot of information about why Jones acted aggressively toward the woman he assaulted, but based on this class some theories come to mind. The two topics that I will discuss are the biological theory focusing on structures of the brain and also

First, Cyrus Jones is a Division I college football player. Football players, especially at this level, experience high risk of head injuries. Concussions are very common in this sport. With the amount of trauma that can occur to the brain in this sport, it is easy to speculate that there is some sort of structural damage or change that can occur to the brain. In Cyrus Jones’ case I think there could be a chance that he could have caused some damage to his prefrontal cortex or his orbitofrontal cortex regions of his brain. If he had damaged his prefrontal cortex he would lose his ability to control his impulses, make good judgement calls, and self-monitor himself. If this has occurred, a small provocation from this woman could cause him to act out aggressively. The same thing could happen if he damaged his orbitofrontal lobe; it would compromise his ability to act appropriately to situations. Alcohol could also be a cause for his aggressive acts. As stated before, Jones is a 21 year-old college student it is also easy to speculate that he might have been intoxicated during this altercation or could have been in the presence of alcoholic beverages at some point in that night. As the studies showed,a person that has experienced a provocation or frustration while intoxicated, that person is more likely to have aggressive behaviors. If the woman had provoked him in some way or if he felt high levels of frustration at that point it could have made him more likely to have acts of aggression. These are just speculations on why Cyrus Jones had an act of aggression, but based on the studies discussed in lecture and in the book, I feel that these speculations are