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by Sarah Cortes - David Adams, EdD., co-director of Emerge, Inc. in Cambridge, provided behavioural and psychological insight on the high-profile Essa cyanide poisoning murder. Adams provided his commentary January 21 on the TV show In Session on Tru TV. In Session, formerly called Court TV, "brings trials to life by taking you outside the courtroom to show you the story behind the testimony," according to CNN's website. Adams was invited to comment on the Ohio case, in which Dr. Yazeed Essa, a former emergency room physician, was convicted in 2010 in Ohio of aggravated murder. Essa poisoned his wife so he could be with his mistress.

Image: Sarah Cortes

Adams works with abusers at Emerge, a nonprofit organization in North Cambridge which helps end domestic violence by educating abusers and holding them accountable for their behaviour. Founded in 1977, Emerge was the first abuser education program in the United States. Since its creation, Emerge has been a national leader in working to end violence in intimate relationships.

In working toward this goal, Emerge seeks to educate individual abusers, prevent young people from learning to accept violence in their relationships, improve institutional responses to domestic violence, and increase public awareness about the causes and solutions to partner violence. With the development of parenting education groups for fathers, Emerge has expanded its mission to include a goal of helping men to become more responsible parents.

Cambridge-based Adams is an internationally recognized expert on dangerousness assessment of intimate partner abusers and on intimate partner homicide. He authored the book "Why Do They Kill? Men Who Murder Their Intimate Partners."

According to reporters Ann O'Neill and Emanuella Grinberg of CNN Justice, Essa's trial "included testimony from more than 60 witnesses who told the story of a philandering doctor, his many mistresses and an international manhunt that crossed three continents and ended with his arrest in Cyprus in October 2006, 18 months after his wife's death."

Adams, who has worked directly with dozens of men convicted of murdering their intimate partners, explained what motivated men like Essa. In Adams' experience, abusive men like the doctor are very concerned about their image, and feel a need to project the image of a successfully married professional man. Men who are chronically unfaithful are generally not motivated by jealousy towards their wives since they are not actually in love with them, as Essa admitted. Rather than jealousy, the loss of assets concerns them. For this reason, they murder their intimate partners rather than suffer the loss of assets that a divorce would entail, Adams explained.

Originally published at: CCTVcambridge.org/DavidAdamsParenting