Is it normal to understand how and why people commit "evil" acts ?

61% Normal
15 Comments

Is it normal to understand how and why a person would want to commit a brutal murder, a hardcore rape, or have strange psychotic urges? I am never surprised when i hear of things like this; completely understand how a person can do things like this or end up doing things like this,.. it just makes sense..to be able to understand the functions in society and their influences and results... not going to go into it as i'll ramble away... but yes... IS IT NORMAL!!?

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61% Normal
Based on 80 votes (49 yes)
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Comments ( 15 )
  • dom180
    12 years ago

    I always sympathise with people who have committed serious crimes. And before you condemn me, consider this:

    The mere fact that you have raped/murdered or whatever shows that the person clearly has mental problems. Then, instead of helping them and trying to get them fit for society, we kill them. Really, they are victims too.

    Let me tell you about a mental illness called Antisocial Personality Disorder. It is common amoungst large, poor families, and it causes abnormal brain activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain in which we process how other people are feeling. In effect, people suffering from this illness, through no fault of their own, cannot process other peoples emotions, so they don't know that things they are doing are wrong.
    Furthermore, the amygdala also processes deterents, so a person with APD does not feel any sort of deterent from a prison sentence or from seeing somebody executed. A survey, carried out in the year 2000 by a psychologist called Raine, in a Californian prison of around 40 convicted murders, concluded, using a brain scan, that all of them had serverely reduced activity in the amygdala. Many of those surveyed were sentenced to death. It seems that the government is killing people who have been suffering from an illness causing them to do these things, and you can't tell me that killing people with a mental illness, BECAUSE they have a mental illness, is fair or in the public interest.

    I'm sorry to be so long-winded, but I think that people deserve to know the other side of the arguement, not just what Rupert Murdoch wants to tell them.

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    • Geldsmaggen
      11 years ago

      "can not process other peoples emotions, so they don't know that things they are doing are wrong"

      I don't have to feel another person's emotions before recognizing that it would be wrong to take their life or their wallet. It's not that other peoples emotions are irrelevant to morality but there are other considerations so that shouldn't stop a person from forming a conception of right and wrong.

      As for the rest of that, whether they know right from wrong they have been informed of what the law is. Any person who disagrees with a law that they break could arguably be said to "not have known it was wrong". It's not about whether or not they knew it was wrong, it's about whether they knew it was the law.

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    • [Old Memory]
      12 years ago

      why is this common amongst poorer families?

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    • Chillpill
      12 years ago

      that's really interesting. Is this disorder related to psychopathy?

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  • Nolan3200
    12 years ago

    Id say so. But I study psychology. So I kinda understand how people work anyway...

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  • DannyKanes
    12 years ago

    I don't understand what you're trying to say. Are you trying to say you understand why people commit such crimes or are you trying to say you don't know why people commit such crimes? I don't get it. Is there a reason why someone would just rape and murder a child? Imho, I don't care on the why, if someone has murdered a child they deserve the death penalty. No need for the why.

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  • Aurora93
    10 years ago

    I think so, just means you're good at understanding people's motives. Are you interested in psychology by any chance? And do you understand why people do good things or is it just bad? If it's both, you're good at understanding people, if it's just bad, you're either a bad person yourself or you have an interest in this area of psychology (I had a friend who was very interested in why people commit crimes and she wasn't a bad person - as far as I know!)

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  • norm
    12 years ago

    The idea that poor families are somehow more likely to suffer from some condition that makes them commit criminal acts against their will is total B.S.

    This is an attempt by bleeding-heart liberals to excuse their behavior. People are responsible for what they do, and the decisions they make. Period.

    How about during the depression years, when almost all of America was poor, but crime rates were fractions of what they are now.

    Total B.S.

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    • Geldsmaggen
      11 years ago

      Why can't there be any middle ground here?

      To Conservatives, human behavior does NOT happen in a vacuum. Think of any random choice you made, it was influenced by something. It wasn't just random. Understanding what influences human behavior is instrumentally if we're going to control crime.

      To Liberals, just because we have an understanding of the reasons why people do things does not mean those people should have no responsibility.

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  • dom180
    12 years ago

    I'm not sure why poorer families are most affected, to be honest. But children from larger families, poorer families and single-parent families all have a higher chance of developing the condition.

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  • Rhuarc
    12 years ago

    What you are describing is empathy which is good and normal. But understand that just because you understand why someone did something does not make it right.

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  • ThePhilosopher23
    12 years ago

    Very few people try to do evil, they usually aren't thinking, are living in the moment, or are deluded. Do you think Hitler thought he was evil? No, to himself he was a liberator, a hero, a revolutionist. People with psychological disorders that cause violence are deluded. Certainly if you thought someone was going to kill you you would kill him.

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  • Inspector019
    12 years ago

    Some things I can understand, but others I can not. I think it really depends on the situation.

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  • rawr123451
    12 years ago

    I think that way 2...idk if it's normal tho

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  • KLynn2013
    12 years ago

    It's very understandable, but who am I to say what's normal? Actually, MORE people, I believe, should be like you, (as am I) because everyones blinded by what's happening to these people, and noone WANTS to understand how a person could do such awful things and shun them... But in reality, it's SOCIETYS fault WHY most people snap, and commit these awful crimes... Societys to blame, as well as everyones actions, we all influenece 1 another, evryone runs off of someone else

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