Are People Born to Kill - Term Paper Example

Are People Born to Kill? Please Discuss the Nature vs Nurture Debate in Relation to Criminal Psychology al Affiliation Abstract Killing is concept that has led to numerous citizens across the world to lose their lives. It is a regarded as a crime by the law but pardoned at certain circumstances, especially when it comes to defence. The document brings a clear perception as what people perceive of murder by arguing it as a natural feature and concept nurtured in the society. Criminologists and psychologist give more insight in understanding murderer and serial killers based on research and theoretical understanding. Based on nature, everyone has the capacity to kill, but the difference is the how individuals control themselves. It is obvious that people fantasize on killing, but while most restrain to the action and let the feeling fade away others implements it. Research indicates that psychopaths’ brain is different from normal people, and the way they process information tend to be different. Gene-culture co evolution and homicide design theories are used to explain this. Killers are also nurtured from life experiences and interaction in the environment where they learn and adopt various behaviours. Social learning and social control theory are used to elaborate further. Finally various case scenarios are used to provide evidence. Keywords: Nature, Nurture, Criminal, Fantasy, Serial Killers, Gene Culture Theory, Scientists, Behaviours Social Learning, Youths, Parenting, Experiences, Evolutionary Theory Introduction Many people have lost their lives as a result of murder. The majority of the perpetrators of these acts of killings are identified, and in certain cases taken lightly. Some children have been identified in the past to have been involved in at least a killing, but considering their age and what the law of the land refers to as the age of crime responsibility, such cases can be treated with leniency through the juvenile system. Youths are the majority of those who engage in violent crimes. However, there are senior adults and old age people in societies whom have been associated in high profile cases of murder. Several factors come to an individual’s attention concerning human acts of killing; one, why some pardoned or charged minors still move to commit murder crimes even in their adults’ age. Second, what makes an individual desire to kill again after the first incident, and how can serial killings be explained. Basically, looking at the trends of existing high profile killings, people seek to understand and explain what it is that could drive a human to take away another’s life. It is quite a controversial topic with two opposing views, where some believe that killers are people inherently born evil and with an embedded impulse to kill, while others hold that their actions are shaped by their unfortunate circumstances they experience in life (“Nature” 2013). Despite the occurrence of these opposing views, there exist different types of killers who are spurred by different motives to kills. The following is a discussion that explores the nurture verses nature drive to kill and establishes various factors behind the killers’ motives. The nature for people to kill 1. Fantasy over murder It is common for people to regard them as normal and incapable of certain things like killings. Humans would hence tend to think of murders as a subset of people with criminal obsession. Truth be told, among the many criminals charged of murder, some of them never expected they would commit such an act until it occurred. Everyone has the potential to kill and especially when under pressure and feels the need to react. Other than verbally expressing the urge to harm another person when furious, there many times when elicited anger or excitement could influence humans’ thinking into killing. Based on words of Dr. Ash at Georgia, “theres a pathway to violence that starts with some thinking and then fantasizing about a plan ... one would think they would give it a lot of thought, but sometimes they go into a somewhat dissociated state where their feelings are really kind of split off from what theyre doing” (Landau, 2009). There seems to be a psychological build up that push some individuals to snap into violence. The duration the psychological build up may take could vary with individuals, but this shows that there many situations when people fantasize of murder. For example in pursuit of revenge or when subjected to high level of hostility, people grumble internally and wish for the other party particular harm, even death. Though many would object and lie over this aspect of homicidal fantasies, it is the reality where many have considered numerous possibilities of murder, probably by stabbing, shooting, poisoning or strangling another for agitating reasons. Many researchers have conducted a study to establish the existence of fantasies to kill among people. Surprisingly, it turns out that it’s no different from any other fantasy for someone who needs to release stress until it is executed and its impact felt. According to Schurman-Kauflin, who had the opportunity to interview female serial killers, she learned that they previously fantasized about killings before engaging in the murders, “they work their knowledge into their fantasies and rehearsed them over and over again, the point of fantasizing was for the women to feel powerful and relieve their high stress levels, making fantasies to become their second nature to them and eventually tend to be gruesome with time” (2011). These are some of the fantasies in people’s mind that most would not want to confess. The difference comes when some decide to act on the fantasies while others pull back and allow the feeling to fade away. 2. Murder cases related to fantasy Numerous confessions from charged serial killers indicate related cases of obsessions that make people want to conduct killing again. It is evident that imaginary scenarios among potential killers could later be disturbing and lead to a long term obsession that is always fulfilled by the implementation of the fantasy into reality. There are common factors that may occur among killers fuelled by fantasy; they enjoy the murder action as can be established from their confessions, and lack of remorse for their violence. A case in Britain involved a 12 year old girl who demonstrated sadistic violence and existence of fantasy that she sought to fulfil. Sharon Carr attacked and mutilated a teenage hairdresser with 29 stab wounds, some of which were reported to penetrate the body to the other side of the victim (Sengupta, 1997). After the murder incidents, most of the things she wrote and drew demonstrated to the jury and investigators what she felt for her actions. Carr said the following in some of her notes, “I am a killer and killing is my business - and business is good….. Killing for me is a mass turn-on and it just makes me so high I never want to come down…. I see the Devil in my dreams and in my mirror…” and four years after her murder involvement in 1992 her statements in the diary depicted her fantasy of killing (Sengupta, 1997). She showed no remorse for killing the victim and the numerous attacks she conducted and instead her words showed how delighted she felt just as the imagination of the scene. Another incident just from Britain, could remind you of the Patrick Mackay’s fascination of murder. Ramsland indicated that Mackay confessed that he experienced a peculiar feeling, which lasted for several days just like in other murders he executed (n.d). Other than emulating Nazism he bragged for the number of people he had killed. One of the imprisoned serial killer in an interview with Schurman-Kauflin told her that she still fantasized of killing even while in prison, yet she could not confess because they authority would fail to release her (2011). 3. Human are innately aggressive Aggression is an instinctive urge within human s that leads them to perform destructions. It is rarely inseparable from issues of defence and that is why most cases result to inevitable violence. Each human has the capacity for aggression and the deference comes in when individual’s degree of control and reacting towards it are factored. In relation to the humans’ psychological aspect, an individual subjected towards harm or whose survival and needs are threatened tends to emit aggressive behaviour. This powerful instinct influences anger, cognitive perception, and hostile impulses that accumulate over time, such that those who lack safe ways to release it would result to severe destructions, inclusive of murder in reaction (“Aggression” n.d). When threatened to death, it appears logical for one to defend them; because of the level of aggression they have at the point anything available can be used to fight and destroy the opponent. Anger is linked to aggression and most would justify their murder crime through it. At this point the human mind is occupied by rage and in their cognitive process, killing appears a moral reasoning. 4. Theories based on human evolution and genetic transmission i) Homicide design theory Murder is concept linked with achieving benefit for the action, especially in competitive scenarios all along the history of human evolution. Consider a scenario of how people or even animals behave in situation of scarce resources. Both could react especially by fights and seek to eliminate a competitor. Hence the essence of competing design is not only restricted to animals in order to acquire a competitive advantage, but is something that still is present in human species. If you look back in the history of human evolution, people developed from their ape ancestors to whom the competitive nature in pursuit of reproduction push them to murder other rivals, which is a strategy for primate reproduction. Similarly, humans along the same line human “have evolved a mechanism for killing other conspecific competitors, which is an infanticide aspect written in humans genes” that would make someone to kill another for a predictable set of circumstances (Buss & Duntley, 2002, p. 23). Specifically, there is the sense of eliminating a rival in the game of reproductive competition. Benefitting at the cost of another is the core theme here and you would not be surprised to realize there many serial killers’ actions that testify to this theory. Humans are faced by multiple adaptive problems in their social lives, hence adopted killing strategy by design. It follows that they employ the fitness benefit of murdering a potential victim where it outweighs the fitness cost. For example there many cases where jealous lovers have murdered their rival competitors to have access of a woman in the picture. Perhaps one of the familiar scenarios is killing for the benefit of gaining rivals material resources, territory and eliminating key competitors (Buss & Duntley, 2002, p. 29). This theory also shows the tactical approach used by serial killers in their fantasy world to design a murder and the victim. ii) Gene-culture co evolutionary theory Murder is a cultural trait that has been passed through generations of humans in their social and interaction process. Over the eons of time, most of the human acquired skills have been passed on to successive generations. After millions of years, the hominid species still practice hunting, which is one of the existing evidence of the passed on culture to the present human societies. Humans practice certain behaviours because they are well encoded into their brains, as a result, these cultures quantitatively grows when passed across to successive generations. According to Durrant and Ward, “it is assumed that the capacity for culture is an evolutionary adaptation that has been selected for in our ancestral past” (2012, p.6). As new born humans the genetic factors highly contribute to what encoded information has been transmitted to them. The “genome encodes those aspects of the organism’s environment that are constant or slowly changing with time” (Gintis, 2011, p.878). The human genome’s has the capacity to respond to the cultural environment. It can also adapt to the cultures, which makes killing an information/idea encoded in the human genome and a cultural trait adopted in the course of interaction with the environment. Killing from this perspective is among other violent behaviours such as wars are things that are genetically programmed and advances from one generation to another. 5. Scientific research Scientific research conducted between the normal humans and psychopaths indicate some form of brain variation among them. What has remained noticeable all along is the physical difference in the psychopathic brain compared to normal people. It was evident after “using an MRI scan that psychopaths among patients suffering from anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) have structural brain abnormalities, and met ASPD+P (diagnosis for psychopathy) meaning they had significantly less gray matter volumes in the emotive sector of the brain” (RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports, 2012). Some are discovered to have larger corpus callosum and hippocampus of their right side than normal and could at times be using both of their brain hemispheres to activities like talking, compared to normal individuals who use the left side. They either have less of the grey matter in the pre-frontal cortex or the latter could have been damaged to obstruct the control of their behaviour. The abnormal brain structure cause their poor impulse control, inability to empathise with others and make a distinction between rules, morals, right or wrong (Vargas, 2009, p.4). Because of these factors psychopaths process information in their mind differently and their psychological deficit impairs their emotional development. Killing is an act nurtured 1. Argument that murderer are made The main argument here is the based on the societies’ capacity and influence that push humans to violence and criminal behaviours. An individual could turn into a criminal due to the sociological forces from the social institutions that affect them, often negatively. The conditions and environment that people deal with in their interactions with social institutions give them experiences that are either harsh to endure or traumatize them as they develop. The manner in which children are raised could have adverse effects in their future lives. Similarly, treating people in an abnormal and abusive manner could generate certain anger and attitudes towards others that could end up hurting them, simply because they were subjected to such actions. Looking at the upbringing of some charged murder, specific abusive incidences and other non abusive conditions could have existed, which caused them to engage in crime either to escape the wrath of past experiences or to retaliate. Dr Katherine clearly identifies various predispositions from the environmental influences can be traced to “parenting, toxic substances, mental health resources, drug abuse, peers and role models, poverty, gang proximity” that could later influence potential offenders into crime (“Nature” n.d). Socialization aspect is said to bring together and teach people in society various activities for their cooperation. However, it’s a source of numerous damages to people’s social lives and focal point to comprehending criminal behaviours. The incidences right from homes where parents fight each other in the presence of their kids, school bullying of timid pupils, ill treatment and harsh punishments from guardians and teachers, cases of betrayal and inconsideration could make different killer types. Examples are potential murders resulting from uncontrolled anger and the jealousy type. 2. Murder cases related societal or environmental influences i) Patrick Mackay He was unlucky to be born in family setting where abuse was a consistent behaviour. Much is told of his father’s abusive nature, especially under the influence of alcoholism. After birth, the violent father subjected Mackay to numerous physical abuses and by the time of his death, a ten year old Mackay was said to have already acquired unwanted behaviours that would later lead him into crime. Stealing was one of his earliest crimes he continued even in his adulthood. He could bully younger children and had become a liar which later was one of the charms to trick elderly women so as execute theft crimes. His childhood incidences indicated much of child with disturbed mind through his interaction with animals and criminal acts in his teenage life. His first childhood heinous actions were the fondling of dead birds, animal cruelty evident from tortured rabbits and even burning of a tortoise pet alive (Wetsch, 2005). The shocking effect was deep after his father’s death and he had a difficulty in coming to terms with his death. Several years down the line, he still claimed his father was alive and even closely held his father’s photo. He turned out to be young teenager with severe emotional outbreak due deep distress. As a young person accumulated tantrums and huge anger would later be released through his cruel psychopathy behaviour to animals and humans. Apparently, he seemed to have followed his father’s abusive behaviour. By time he was diagnosed as cold psychopath (at 15 years old), he had already attempted to kill his close relatives (mother and aunt) and a young boy, and attempted to burn a Catholic church, though restrained in time (Chris, 2013). Other than the fascination with Nazism, he had engaged in drunkenness life just as the father and even dabbled with drugs as a youth. Most of his crimes had mastered in burglary and mugging the elderly, claimed to have beaten a woman to death, strangled and stabbed several before he was finally convicted for the murder of father Crean. The abusive upbringing was clearly a predisposition for his engagement in violent crimes and murder. The experiences left deep wound that troubled him and impaired his emotions. ii) Aileen carol Wuornos Her case and life experiences can be related to many in the modern society. She experienced an awful childhood together with her brother from careless parenting to neglect ion from the biological parents. The father was known to be a psychopath childhood molester who never had the opportunity to raise them because of his convictions, and their mother had literally abandoned them only to be adopted by their maternal grandparents (“Aileen” n.d). To sum it up, the grandfather was a heavy drunkard though very strict in discipline. Her life was stirred of neglect ion, abuse and deception before she decided to take charge of her life leading to her early love affairs and crimes of murder. First, her grandfather had an abusive habit of heavily whipping her bare buttocks with a belt, which inflicted much pain, and second, she only came to know the truth that the adopted parents were her grandparents, which made her to be quite rebellious at a teenage (Macleod, n.d, p.2). Being a victim of circumstances in her life, her rape at age 14 led to the birth of a child that she eventually gave up for adoption just like her mother did to them. She ventured in hitch hiking and prostitution activities from which she came to develop relationships with some of those who picked her. In pursuit of love she most resulted in failed relationships and at the climax of her promiscuous relationship had to seek alternatives to maintain her lesbianism love life. Though widely appreciated she stole for maintenance purposes, her later claims pointed out that she murdered all those men in self defence for fear of repeated abuses of her past. However, it cannot be ignored that some people, especially women have born grudges and would go to killing men who subject women and children to similar rape and violence they experienced. Anger and hatred has been harboured within them, which is slowly released in murder among other violence. 3. Psychological influence from media The media has become an influential channel that creates images of how people should solve their problems. As children grow up they pick and learn to implement a lot of what they see and hear. Over the decades, especially since the age of technology began after the 80s, persuasive reality shows, destructive films and entertainment has exposed majority in the society to negative and evil behaviours. Most of activities and emotions like aggression/violence and retaliations expressed teach people that they are normative. For example if children, emotionally deprived or non violent ASPD individuals are exposed to horror movies or numerous films entailing murder, the more they watch the more it becomes a reality to them. This is due to their ineffective brain processing. A child’s brain could be young to understand that stabbing is wrong while the rest may either have their brain development permanently skewed or psychological processing of information distorted by the painful and difficult earlier life experiences. According to Galen, “impulses created by abuse are encoded in their brains. When mental illness and neurologic damage are added—which may be caused by fetal exposure to drugs or alcohol, a birth defect, an accident, or the abuse itself—conditions exist that are quite likely to produce violent antisocial acts” (2002). Hence it is possible for such individuals to learn violent behaviour even killing because the impulses created from what they watch and hear through media other than life experiences are encoded in their brains to add to their memory. Some would imitate or practice the murder act regardless of whether it’s an animal or human in reference to a similar situation as they learned from media. 4. Supporting theories i) Social Learning Theory It holds that people learn various behaviours acquired by people are derived from a system of punishments and rewards and the life experiences through interaction. It is based observational learning, and operant conditioning (entails using punishments and reinforcements) (“Social Learning” n.d, p.1).The focus is mainly at learning through the process of observing others, adopting their strategies and modelling one’s owns attitudes, behaviours and reinforcing the consequences. In explaining murder and crimes of violence, potential offenders could pick these traits after reviewing how the system goes ahead to reward it. For example their many cases where militants have learnt and practiced the art of war, but used the ability execute forced crime including rape and murder of other targets outside of war zones. Law and defence has nowadays become a sort of a game in the courts that would end up rewarding a heinous crime for lack of evidence. Offenders hence have the opportunity to further their crimes as long as no evidence clearly point out to them; after all an individual in most nations is innocent till proven guilty. Just like aggression behaviour, murder is a learnt concept conducted to react to situations in life experiences. ii) Social Control theory The closeness an individual has with their family or other societies determine their sense of belongingness in it. Existing social bonds would help shape their moral perspectives and have greater influences in determining their involvement in delinquent behaviours. The bonds formed to “pro-social people, values and institutions in society” comprises of attachment, involvement, commitment and belief, and the stronger they are the more likely to inhibit criminal behaviour (Hirschi, 1969, p.58). For example children who lacked close ties to their parents or even abandoned in the streets serve as a predictor for their later criminal engagement. Quality parenting is vital in the development of a child as it gives them affective ties and ability to experience great social control. Snyder argues that parental neglect as much as abuse also contribute to violence and long term injuries sustained by children at the hands of repetitively changed caregivers, which cause the difficulty in healing of grown up youths and adults for subjected neglect and abuse in their childhood (n.d, p.3). Some of the serial killers had previously been identified to have attachment disorder (AD) as a result of falling victims to bitter childhood circumstances. AD patients have a higher likelihood of engaging into violent crimes inclusive of murder. Abusive childhood experiences, especially among women bears the blame for existing female serial killers who murder men and other sexual predators. Conclusion There are evidently numerous studies that support both claims. However the argument those murderers are made seem rather controversial even with the existing difference in brain structure as identified in scientific brain scans. There other people with such brain abnormalities yet not killers while others have normal brain structure yet identified to be serial killers. Some people also have high levels of aggression yet not killers, least to associate with fantasy over killing. However, there is a higher tendency for people’s outcome to be affected by their environment than their genetic composition. Earlier life experience, like in childhood abuse, neglect ion, betrayal and discrimination as in workplaces, wrong association of people and exposure to negative behaviours among others would coerce or influence people to react through murder among other violent crimes. Though nature may not be ruled out, nurture aspect for its psychological effect is basically the main factor for existence of many killers. Reference List Aggression. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://webspace.ship.edu/ambart/psy_220/agressol.htm Aileen Wuornos Biography. (n.d). 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