COMMENTS:
Here's an interesting interview between serial killer/rapist Ted Bundy and a reporter prior to his execution.
TED- I grew up in a wonderful home with two dedicated and loving parents, as one of 5 brothers and sisters. We, as children, were the focus of my parent's lives. We regularly attended church. My parents did not drink or smoke or gamble. There was no physical abuse or fighting in the home...
Before we go any further, it is important to me that people believe what I'm saying. I'm not blaming pornography. I'm not saying it caused me to go out and do certain things. I take full responsibility for all the things that I've done. That's not the question here. The issue is how this kind of literature contributed and helped mold and shape the kinds of violent behavior.
My personal thought is that those who commit heinous crimes have problems genetically. Ted said that his addiction to pornography made him "look for more potent, more explicit, more graphic kinds of material. Like an addiction, you keep craving something which is harder and gives you a greater sense of excitement, until you reach the point where the pornography only goes so far - that jumping off point where you begin to think maybe actually doing it will give you that which is just beyond reading about it and looking at it."
Obviously Ted was mentally ill. I know several men who are addicted to porn, but you dont see them raping 12 year old girls and murdering between 30-50 women.
good ballot by the way
I think it's a combination of both nature and nurture. Some people are "wired" to behave a certain way either positively or negatively, but something in their lives has to trigger that behavior. Mojo, using your example of the two family members surviving abuse where one's ok (let's call him Jack) and the other goes nuts (meet Harry), Harry has been wired to take only a limited amount of abuse and follows a path of destruction when that level of abuse is met, whereas Jack was wired with a higher threshold of withstanding abuse and become a righteous dude. However, if they had grown up in a different (peaceful) environment, Harry's propensity for abnormal behavior might never have been triggered. His "weakness", so to speak, might never have been exposed. It goes the other way, too. If Mozart had grown up in a slum and was never exposed to a piano, his musical genius might never have been "triggered". Anyway, that's my amateur take on things. I'm sure I'll get shot down by somebody on this ballot. Classic question, by the way. Way to go.
I agree, Bostonian, it's often a combination of both.
Too say it's a combination of both really isn't saying much.
20% nature
80% nurture
Everyone is born with particular tendancies toward, in this case, crime. But it mostly depends on the environment they grew up in. Bad experiences while young/childhood=f***ed up adult. On the other hand mental disorders many times manifest themselves around the age of puberty these can be judged differently. In my opinion many of these mental problems can be overlooked and in this case its a good mixture between nature and nurture. Good ballot.
A jury makes a criminal a criminal.
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