Researching Human Bite Causes and Possible Characters

Human Bite Causes
A human bite can occur intentionally, where another person, or the person themselves, has deliberately done it. An example of this could be in a physical fight, where someone could bite into someone's skin and cause bleeding and bruising, or where someone's body part, like the ear or nose, could be ripped off. Other examples could include sexual assault, child abuse or self harm/self mutilation.

The human bite could also be accidental if, for example, someone's mouth collides with a body part in sport or a fight. In a physical fight someone could be punched in the mouth and that would cause a human bite on their fist. Depending on how hard these collisions are, the hand can have serious injuries and could get infected if not treated properly. Someone could accidentally catch their teeth on someone's body, causing either a little indent or a more serious injury.

More subtle human bites could include biting finger nails and around the nails; this could cause infection. An example of a bite that people wouldn't necessarily think of as one, would be when a mother/father kisses or sucks on a child's cut or other open wound because this can easily cause infection. Another common human bite is the 'love bite' or 'hickey' where someone bites onto the skin and sucks it. This can be harmless if the skin is not broken, however sometimes this can be taken too far and could be classed as abuse, especially when seen on children.

Self Mutilation
I have chosen self mutilation as the cause for my human bite. Self mutilation, or self harm, is when someone intentionally causes themselves pain to torture hurt or punish themselves. Examples of self harm could include cutting the skin, severe scratching, burning, ripping of hair or needle stabbing; however I will be doing human bites. Some forms of self harm are with the intention of killing themselves, however the self harm I will be showing, will not have had that intention.

A common conception of self bodily harm is to get attention, however this is not usually the case. Many people self harm in places where other would not see it, because they are ashamed of doing it and don't want other people to see it; they want to keep it a secret. Self harm is most commonly caused by deep emotional pain, however there is no one reason for people to do it. Many people who self harm say that they do it to escape from their emotional pain because they are having to think about a different kind of pain. Some people say that when they cut themselves and feel pain it makes them feel alive, instead of numb or dead inside. Some say it is a way of relieving stress or built up anger. Some say self harm is a way of having control over themselves and their body, maybe that they feel they don't have in other aspects of their lives.

The emotional pain that could cause self harm could be caused by a great number of things, including abortion, divorce, poor body image, low self-esteem, rejection or drug/alcohol abuse. There isn't a certain group of people who are more likely to self harm, however there are people who may be more likely to self harm. These include people ages between 15 and 25, people who live in residential care, drug or alcohol abusers, people with learning disabilities and prisoners. Self harm may be more common than people think as one study showed that roughly 40% of college students have self harmed themselves at least once.

Developing my Character
After researching different reasons that could cause human bites and the most commonly affected people, I have decided that my character will be a female prisoner who self mutilates/self harms. According to a BBC News report, self harm in 'four times more likely' to happen in female prisoners. The report also claimed that according to Oxford University researchers, even though women 'make up only 5% of the prison population but account for half of all self-harm incidents'. The report said that scratching and cutting was the most common form of self harm, however I my character will have self harmed through biting hard on her arm. I may also include scratches on her arm and possibly her neck to show other forms of self harm. Prisoners are very limited with what they can take in to the prison as self harm and suicide is such a risk, so biting themselves would definitely be an option for them to self harm.

An example of female inmates.
NBC NEWS, 2012. America's only all-female chain gang toils in Phoenix heat [10 October 2015]. Available from:  http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/28/12456752-americas-only-all-female-chain-gang-toils-in-phoenix-heat?lite

I am going to look into females prisoners and see how they are treated and therefore see how they may look, what they may wear and how healthy they may be. I want my character to look as realistic as possible so the makeup I will do will be very subtle and natural looking. I will also look into the crime that my character may have committed and therefore the reason she is in prison and the length of time she has been in prison for.

Resources:
BALENTINE, J., 2015. Human Bites [10 October 2015]. Available from: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/human_bites/article_em.htm

SALTERS-PEDNEAULT, K., 2015. Self Mutilation [10 October 2015]. Available from:
http://bpd.about.com/od/understandingbpd/a/selfharm.htm

PEARLMAN, J., 2015. Why Do People Self-Harm? [10 October 2015]. Available from:
http://www.thesite.org/mental-health/self-harm/why-do-people-self-harm-5680.html

BBC, 2013. Self-Harm 'four times more likely' in Female Prisoners [10 October 2015]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25366160