Dreams

Interpreting Dreams of Crime and Violent Acts

Dreams of Crime and Violent Acts
Photo by [Victor Habbick] FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Welcome back to the Dream Series here on Odd Random Thoughts. I know, I know, it’s been entirely too long since I added a post to this series on dreams, so I thought you all deserved an update. This series has done extremely well and had a lot of participation in the comments section, so I think we need to keep things rolling.

Dreams are so fascinating and they come in so many different shapes and sizes. Everyone has their very own way of producing these mind played dramas within their own mind and I have an excellent time hearing from all of you when you feel the need to share your dreams with us.

Perhaps you are looking for an interpretation from the minds eye of someone else, I try my best to help with this when someone is seeking advice on their dreams, so feel free to take advantage of the comments for this purpose.

So, to cut to the chase let me introduce this next post in the dream series… We are going to cover dreams that involve what are known as Bad Deeds! Yep that’s right, we all have a little bad side to us whether it’s in real life or if we choose to let this side of us slip out while dreaming.

To be more specific I’m talking about Interpreting Dreams of Crime and Violent Acts. These are most certainly some of the more disturbing of dreams, but let’s face it…these types of dreams do sometimes occur. So what do they mean, and what are we trying to tell ourselves. Without further adieu, let’s get straight to the good stuff.

What do Dreams about Crime and Acts of Violence Mean?

Most experts will tell you that anytime you dream of committing a crime or act of violence this is normally a reflection of your inner feelings acting out. For instance a negative type action in your dream will usually symbolize the darker side of your human nature, you may also choose to call this your shadow side.

This shadow side is basically a culmination of all the things you have been repressing or denying, this is often times the side of you that you do not wish to believe is there. But as I stated earlier, it’s there whether you like it or not, it’s just human nature. But it’s most certainly better to let this side of you show itself while dreaming than in the waking life, wouldn’t you agree?

When you dream of these darker sided things, it is your minds way of telling you to release and to bring these things to the open part of your mind, this way the repression may subside and it won’t effect you as much in your daily living.

Dreams that involve violence may also reveal feelings about yourself or others around you that you have contact with in waking life. As always it’s very important to pay close attention to the little details concerning the violent acts if you are to apply it to your life which will help you better understand and interpret these dreams.

But there is good hope for these types of dreams, they are very seldom predictive of things that may happen in real life, so there’s not much worry that you will commit these offenses while awake.

But there is one exception, recurring dreams of committing the act of rape may suggest extreme violent tendencies and these feelings could possibly carry over in your waking life. If you are having recurring dream like this, then I suggest strongly you seek some professional help before it’s too late.

Anyway, with all that said and done, let’s go over some specific dream scenarios and discuss what they may mean.

Common Interpretations for Dreams of Crime

Committing Acts of Deception While Dreaming

If while dreaming you find yourself lying or cheating, or even if you hear someone else doing this, it may be an indication of guilty feelings or maybe you feel you’ve not been honest in the waking life. This may also be an indicator that you feel someone else has been this way towards you. Recurring instances of this type of dream may suggest you have been living a lie in real life and it’s time to be honest with yourself.

This type of message may also be delivered to you in the form of a dream involving stealing, forgery, fraud and even blackmail. On the other hand, if you aren’t really the one committing the awful acts, but you witness someone else doing these things, then it could be because you are feeling guilt for witness something wrong in the waking life and you’ve chosen to ignore it.

If any of these scenarios are being inflicted upon you by someone else in a dream, then ask yourself one simple question, “Who has done me wrong in waking life”. As this may be a sign someone has intentionally done you wrong in real life and you may not of noticed.

Dreaming of Being Punished for a Crime

You may also find yourself dreaming of the punishment phase of a certain wrong doing. Of course waking from a dream like this normally leaves you feeling quite relieved that you weren’t in fact involved in the crime or the punishment. But that doesn’t mean you will not experience anxiety left over from such a feeling.

If this is the case, it’s quite important to try and identify any feelings that you had during this dream, this will help greatly with the interpretation. Try to remember if you had feelings of guilt or anger, and maybe you felt the punishment was unjust or undeserved.  Feeling guilty may be symbolic of something that causes your piece of mind to be disturbed.

But what if you were actually caught committing a crime in your dream, and then you find yourself awaiting the punishment, what would this mean? This is certainly your minds way of telling you that your dreaming mind disapproves of such actions and if you don’t change your ways, then your wrong doings will be discovered in the waking life.

If the person in charge of the punishment is someone you know, then you probably have remorse for something you’ve done wrong to this person in life. But if the punisher is not someone you know, it could simply mean you are feeling guilty for being disrespectful towards an authority figure.

Lynch mobs normally represent society as a whole, and being attacked by one is symbolic of committing a crime against the masses, such as littering, or playing your music too loud in residential neighborhoods. Here are a few other scenarios with a short explanation:

Being Whipped: A feeling that life has dealt you harsh blows.

Being Arrested: Represents a need for restraint in the waking life.

Forensic Team Present: Your minds way of telling you to take a look at your motives.

Stealing in Your Dreams

Stealing, burglary or anything of the sort is a suggestion of feeling envious of someone else, meaning you want something they have. The most important factors of this type of dream would be WHO are you stealing from and WHAT are you taking. This will greatly help with the interpretation.

Crime Dreams
Photo by [bejim] FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Dream Interpretations for Violence

Accidents are often times associated with violence while dreaming and if you are having this type of dream you may want to read my post Meanings for Having Accidents in Your Dreams for a better understanding of these.

Dreams that involve some sort of ambush or abduction may represent your desperate attempts in the waking life to ward off humiliation of some sort. Particularly if you are being abducted or ambushed in your dream then try thinking of someone you feel is trying to control you in life.

If you are dreaming and you begin attacking someone, this normally suggests a hidden hostility towards someone that you know in real life. If this is the case then try to remember what caused the incident, because this could be your dreaming minds way of dealing with pent up frustrations and this was your way of release.

Being the victim of a violent act while dreaming is quite possibly your way of punishing yourself for something you’ve done while awake. If the person committing violence against you is someone you know in real life, then maybe there’s something you’ve done to that person and you’re feeling guilty.

It may also be symbolism for being aware of how you treat others in life. If you are being treated violently by others in your dream it may be the minds way of telling you to be careful not to upset others in life.

Being in Front of a Firing Squad: May represent feelings of victimization.

An Animal Attacker: This could represent an internal conflict with yourself rather than an outside attacker.

So that is a lot of information on dream interpretations involving acts of violence and crime. I know this post is rather long, but I tried to cut some of these explanations quite short in an effort to keep it as short as possible. But as many of you already know, dream interpretation is not a simple thing, in fact most explanations may be quite complex and have several different meanings depending on the scenario and the person. So I challenge you to remember in keeping your dream journal on your nightstand and write down as much as you can when you first wake up.

All the best wishes to you all and I hope all of your dreams are good ones.

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59 thoughts on “Interpreting Dreams of Crime and Violent Acts
  1. I had a dream about me and my hubby killing my councilor. My hubby killed her but I was there. I was part of it. They released him but I was put in a psych ward. I don’t understand because I love my councilor.

  2. Hello,
    Recently I’ve had very violent dreams. For example, a dissaproving father of a friend kept trying to kill me with guns everytime I was near. Another example, there was a case of possible human trafficking against my siblings and I. I ended up stabbing one of our captors, and it was so surreal, I swear I could feel the muscles ripping under the skin. Very violent dreams, and thanks to this post I have an idea of where this is coming from! Thank you 🙂

  3. My deceased husband was very violent towards me I am now happily married but I keep having nightmares about my dead husband where he is following me and abusing me what does this mean.

  4. Hi I was wondering if you can help me understand this dream I had last night. So I was with a friend I guess she is not familiar in my present life I actually don’t even no who is she but in this dream she has a son and her boyfriend I dnt no him either came with a friend to abuse her with a machete they caught her in my dream and he actually killed her with the machete I took the child and ran with him as I was protecting this child he found us and he caught me and cut both of my forearms with the machete I can hear my self screaming for him to stop but he didn’t and than I woke up please help me understand this dream thank you

  5. i’ve had dreams that im committing acts of violence. very brutal, and very vivid. i had a dream in wich i was with my bestfriend, and i was frustrated, i grabbed a knife and i stabbed him in the stomach. I remember the sound it made as the pressure in his insides was released. I just kept stabbing over and over, long after he died and i watched his blood run through my hands and onto the floor, and the dream was so real that even when im awake i swear i can feel the warm thickness of his blood running in my hands. This isnt the only one either, almost everynight i have violently homcidal raging dreams in wich im so aggravated that im killing even those closest to me. these dreams scare me, i dont talk about them, i dont even know what to think it gets to the point where i avoid everything and everyone when im angry because ill remember my dreams, and they seem so real, they make me feel like i can really do it. Its why i stay up so late, the dreams are scary, scariest because i feel as though my dreams will one day be a reality.

  6. Ive been having nightmare since i was 4.nite terrors. I had a dream that a very dangerous drugdealer/ pimp wanted to kill me. I can see his face, hair and tatoos but don’t know hom. Have violent dreams every nite but this one i can’t forget. Drs told my parents i’d outgrow these. Never have. Am i going to de?

  7. I have a very close friend the dreams he’s been having will scare him to death, Last he told me he was sofficating by a black figure it was pitch black so he couldn’t see his face or if it something else. His other dreams included a dark mysterious man figure whom disquises itsself as those close to my friend. Other dreams he’ll have will be things that seem real then when they become a reality he’s terrified. Please help, he’s my best friend…

  8. What if you weren’t the one doing the violence, what if you dreamt about going to school like a normal day and having a class that I have full of freshman everyday, I’m a senior so I don’t really talk to any of them and also I just don’t talk much, and this day one of them flirted with me and for whatever reason I flirted back in the beginning of the class. After he flirted he jokingly said something to the effect of ‘would you shoot this person?’, I can’t remember really how I replied but I don’t think it was with a yes. Towards the end of the hour this guy stood up, took a gun out of his pocket, shot the guy who he was talking about till the end of the hour then shot me 6 times in the throat. My teacher for some reason didn’t go to me to check on me till she got to me when passing out papers and at some point in there he was knocked out and lying on the floor. When she got to me she finally reacted and took me to the nurse, called 911, somehow my sister and one of her old guy friends showed up. At some point after that I left the room for something real quick, when I was on my way back people were freaking out that he woke up there were others helping in now as well. I saw him in one of the classes awake I swore I did so I ran to get my sisters old guy friend from another class and ran back to the nurses office where I thought were my sister and nurse also so I felt safe. Turns out they had a mask on that made them look like the only three people I trusted and I was then locked in the nurses office with him and his two friends while I still had those 6 bullets in my throat and then I woke up. Please explain this to me?

  9. I recently awoke from a nightmare crying because of the awfulness that occurred in it. At the beginning it was like I was leaving work with some coworkers (I don’t work due to health problems so this was strange) and we were in a pretty large parking lot. One of my coworkers seemed to be an ex-boyfriend of my best friend (in real life, this ex-boyfriend is in a motorcycle gang and is not a good person) and he handed me a large sum of money as a gift and then told me to follow him by car to some place that seemed to be the middle of nowhere, but there was an industrial type garage with some other old, abandoned and dilapidated buildings in the area. I was driving and my brother was in the passenger seat. When we got there, the ex-boyfriend of my friend and the father of my ex-boyfriend got out of the car in front of us and pulled guns on us in order to rob us. I told them to take whatever and to please not hurt us, especially my brother because he is married and has 3 kids (which is true in real life) and he is younger than me, but only by 10 months. For some reason the two men took him into this garage and I was sent with 2 or 3 females to walk around near these other old, abandoned buildings. I knew they were part of this robbery, but seemed to talk to them enough for them to not hurt me. While I was separated from my brother I started hearing his painful and agonizing screams. I panicked and ran to the garage to find that they had put my brother in some type of crushing device. His body was folded backwards and he was squished so thin, like a folded shirt. I was screaming and crying for them to stop and they just stood there, almost amused with themselves, folded arms and did nothing while I began to unhook him from this crushing device, which seemed quite easy. When I got him off this machine his body was still squished like a folded up shirt and I didn’t know what else I could do to help and so I fell to the ground crying and trying to figure out what I could do to keep him alive. I was so afraid he was going to die shortly, but he was not dead yet. I could hear him taking short breaths like he was dying, but I still did not know what I could do to help him further. That’s about when the dream ends and I wake up, realize what I had dreamed, and began crying because in real life, I know these men that were trying to kill my brother in my dream. That was the most bothersome part, knowing I know these guys in real life even though I never see them anymore. I just can’t figure out what this dream could mean because my brother does not know my friend’s ex-boyfriend in any way and has never met my ex-boyfriend’s father (who is a really sweet and nice guy in real life), I just don’t get it at all. I was afraid it was some prophetic dream that my brother was going to meet someone on Craigslist to buy or sell something and that something bad was going to happen to him. I texted him at 5am to tell him I had a terrible nightmare that I would explain later and to just let me know he was ok. He texted back, “I’m here,” just a couple minutes later. I was glad to hear he is ok, but this nightmare is the most bothersome I’ve ever had in my LIFE and I’m 31 years old. I’ve never had any nightmares like this before and certainly none that seemed as awful as this one. Can anyone please explain or interpret? I didn’t watch anything scary on tv that night, but I’ll admit, I’ve just recently gotten into listening to people on YouTube narrate “true horror stories from reddit” and am a fan of The Walking Dead. I just can’t explain why people I my friend’s ex-boyfriend and my ex-boyfriend’s father are even a part of this dream since I don’t see or speak with either anymore really and to be honest and thorough, I’ve only seen/met my friend’s ex-boyfriend a few times and I haven’t even seen or spoken to my ex’s father in over a year and he and I have been broken up for a little over 2 years now. This nightmare really did a number on my mind!

  10. So, I want to start out by saying that I am an 18 year old female that has had a fair amount of trauma, largely due to assault and rape. I’ve been having recurring nightmares almost every night since I can remember, and rare nights with good dreams or no dreams at all. One that keeps coming back is particularly violent and terrifying; I am in an interrogation room that has fallen into disrepair, and I can see through a pane of glass to another linked room. A woman is tied up, her feet, hands, and mouth restrained, and a man ( I never see his face in this dream) is beating her, viciously. He laughs and grins while he does so, and it’s very graphic. Someone or something is holding my head still in the dream, so I HAVE to watch as this woman is beaten severely, and then raped horribly. I have the dreadful feeling, in this dream, that I am going to be next, but I am rather detached/calm, almost as if I am merely watching a movie, not seeing what is going to happen to me soon. When I wake up, I have an overwhelming sense that someone is going to hurt me, and it’s led me to violently object to even leaving the bed.

    I would welcome any advice or interpretation of this dream. More than anything, I just want it to stop. I’ve started to dread going to sleep, as my mind is no longer a safe place, but a horrifying area where anything and everything happens. Please help me.

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