Oscar Pistorius and 10 Murders Involving His Brother, Investigator, and the Judge

The world lost many role models among athletes to scandal and crime in the 2010s - Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, dozens eliminated from World Class and Olympic sporting events for doping or cheating in other ways. Many people have warned the public that high paid or high profile amateur athletes are not the role models that our nation's youth need - that they are not the role models that our adults need.

Social scientists tell us that professional and amateur competition athletes are high risk takers and that this very quality not only allows them to excel in sports, but also leads them into negative behaviors - drinking to excess, drugging, infidelity in marriage, property damage such as trashing hotel rooms, fistfights, gunfights, even murder. The world looks at Oscar Pistorius, the beloved and controversial Blade Runner, and hope he is not guilty of premeditated murder.

It is fast becoming a world in which some rappers sing about murders and some athletes commit the murders. Should the world witness too many more such fallen athletes, then the world of sports may lose fans and dollars.

• Oscar Pistorius on February 20 gave evidence that he had received death threats in the past and always kept a firearm beside his bed. He panicked when he heard noises in the bathroom in the middle of the night after awakening.

Oscar Pistorius was taken to court on Friday, February 15, 2013 to hear allegations that he shot and killed his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp. He listened as court officers reported that the woman was shot through a closed door in four different parts of her body: the head, the chest, a hand, and the pelvis. He listened as officers went on to describe how neighbors complained of hearing shouting noises from his home in a gated community in South Africa before the murder occurred on Valentine's Day. He brolke down and cried.

Adding to official suspicions was the record of Oscar's previous somewhat violent reocrd with a former girlfriend, one in which he slammed a door on her. He had a drunken boating incident. He likes to use guns and alcohol and guns surely do not mix well - an good example is one in which America's former VP Dick Cheney and his friend had been drinking while hunting one morning, leading to the VP accidentally shooting his friend in the face. One would think that intelligent people could monitor their behaviors in order to prevent these tragedies. Did Oscar Pistorius have another lapse in judgement on February 14?

Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder, but DNA evidence as well as fingerprints and the murder weapon needed to be examined.

Reeva Steenkamp was a model for the UK's magazine called FHM: It's great to be a man. This sounds like high risk behavior to me already. Reeva modeled elsewhere as well, but still, here it is, this FHM.

Right now, they are advertising for readers to vote in the "100 Sexiest Party." We know that sex and jealousy can dovetail quite easily and end in murder -- It happens in my Midwest US city every week. I think models in these projects must think about being safe and must think about risks vs. rewards, individual morality aside the point but also important.

Looking at FHM, it's not the worst sexploitation magazine I've ever seen, but the street honeys section is rather crude. From my counseling work, I know that overall, modeling for these websites and magazines can result in stalkers, in boyfriends becoming jealous, and so on; so, one must ask oneself, "Is the well-paying wage of this type of modeling here worth the risk?" It's an individual choice.

SUMMATION

We have a woman modeling for a "sexy" magazine and a male double amputee (which condition causes stress at least some of the time) fighting athletics associations for a chance to run - and then not winning all his events, to his anger and disappointment - and other circumstances that we do not know. But we do have a dead woman, shot four times after a long round of argument and screaming by voices not yet identified.

We must see DNA, ballistics, and other physical evidence. No matter the outcome of the case, I hope Oscar Pistorius continues to receive support from his fans and family, and that he seeks counseling/therapy as soon as possible. His life has been one of upheaval and trials, as least for the least on the run up to the 2012 London Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Olympic atheletes have minor downfalls after training hard and winning medals every Olympic year - Oksana Baiul had a drunken driving charge. Michael Phelps was photographed supposedly using drug smoking apparatus. The training and competition are very tough - Phelps spoke of his life as staring at the bottom of a pool for many years. Skaters rise at 3:30 AM for years. These are not average behaviors; not many people do that.

I liken atheletes' erratic behaviors post-Olympics to a lesser form of Plubukto, where igloo dwellers and polar explorers felt so confined that they suffered extreme cabin fever and paranoia, left their igloos and huts, stripped off clothing in sub-zero weather and ran into blizzards, where they suffered snow blindness, other sensory deficits, disorientation, and death.

Still, athletes and others must be responsible for their own lives and there are ways of handling burnout and cabin fever. Proven guilt in crimes should have consequences, and sometimes with mental health services attached.

Like our American individuals with mental health conditions that own and operate firearms, I think that high-stressed, high risk professional and amateur athletes also need some sort of preventive preparations to head off violence successfully before it can occur. Amputees often receive mental health services and support to stay healthy overall -- What about our high profile athletes?