Another Sociopath...

[Jonathan Randall]

Police are describing the basement of an Oakland murder suspect as a "Silence of the Lambs" type room:
SUSPECT

What is going on? Why so many sociopaths?

 

[terryl965]

Johnathon in my opinion it is because as a society we coddle and care for those that say it is a mental issue and we put stuff like that into movies where this young confuse people start to believe it is real and the way to be.

 

[MJS]

People like that need to be locked up in a cell, for life!

I have to agree with Terry. All too many times, people complain that its a mental issue, they're not getting the treatment they need in prison, blah, blah, blah. IMHO, I really don't see rehabilitation for people like this. If they were really interested in bettering themselves, they should've done it before they went to prison, when they first realized they had a problem. Again, I have to wonder if this guys family noticed any signs of abnormal behavior.

Mike

 

[Kacey]

While I don't disagree with anything that's been said, I also have to wonder how much of what we hear about today is because such things are happening more, and how much is that we are hearing about it more. Mental illness and acts of sociopathy were, in the past, swept under the rug and ignored by "polite society" in the past; now, such events are reported, and in the never-ending competition for rating points, they are actively sought out by news media, because sex, drugs, and violence sells. Until we, as a society, rise up en masse and ask for a change in what is reported, nothing will change. I am not suggesting that the media not report such things, as society needs to remain aware that such things occur - only, as was suggested on other threads recently, that such persons not be made famous (or infamous) for their atrocities. Too many good deeds and events go unreported, or are reported briefly on back pages, to make room for the more "sensational" happenings.

 

[exile]

Something which you hear a lot is that where you have tightly integrated communities---neighborhoods where people know each other and look out for each other---crimes of all sorts are far less infrequent than in places where people live parallel isolated lives. Sociopaths and other destructive types gravitate to the latter and avoid the former, because they feel they stand out against the background more. It's not just a village-vs.-city thing; the difference also emerges between parts of cities where people know a lot of their neighbors and have some fellow-feeling with them, vs. parts where that isn't true. Anonymity encourages `random' violence, social engagement discourages it, seems to be the message...

 

[hongkongfooey]

This guy is a prime candidate for a bullet in the head behind the court house.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

That is so sad! However, I think that this type of stuff has been going on forever and that now it is just more readily reported on. Not only that but there are more of us (humans) and hence the normal percentage of completely nutty people means that there are more of them as well.
Just my thoughts on it.

 

[Lisa]

Pain and anguish sells. There is a fine line between making an issue public to try and educate and sensationalizing bad situations. As more and more people plug into the internet the world shrinks and truly becomes a small place to live.

 

[Arizona Angel]

It's heriditary. Gets embedded into the DNA. Then society adds to that. Recipie for disaster!

 

[Fu_Bag]

This guy is a prime candidate for a bullet in the head behind the court house.

I remember seeing a movie w/Richard Gere where he's a murder suspect in China. The judge tells him ".....if you are found guilty, you will be executed and the cost of the bullet will be billed to your family".

Most criminals seem to know how to work the system. The "mental problems" thing can become an easy escape from justice if they can manage to use it. Of course, there are also plenty of people who take pity on such unfortunate creatures and try to solve the problem with hug therapy. Sometimes, the "bullet will be mailed to your family" solution seems a lot more productive for protecting society. Of course, that's a whole other debate in itself.

 

[Don Roley]

That is so sad! However, I think that this type of stuff has been going on forever and that now it is just more readily reported on.

I think Brian is right. It is not so much that people have changed, but rather that we have more people living right now than has lived previously. By that I mean that if you lined up every person who had died, they still would not be as much as the people living today.

So all the cases in history would still be less if it was the same percentage of evil doers in the population.

And we report these things more and are aware of things that happen half way around the world now. Sometimes in the past, things like this would be hushed up so as to not cause panic or scandal.

An amazing thing is when you have a nation where the number of reported cases of rape or child molestation shoots through the roof and the people involved with the reporting are pleased. It is not that the cases are going up. It is that the number of reported cases are going up as people throw off the stigma associated with being a victim and come forward. In the same way, if the family of this guy had found things out on a farm 200 years ago they probably would have covered it over and taken care of him in some way themselves.