Made or Breed, criminals

[kuwaizair]

I thought, to go with the "homosexuals? nurture or nature" themed topic
lets go with another flavor.

people who'll be prone to commit crimes.

are mass murders, rapists, embezzlers all sad souls who have something inside their brains that make them do these things? or can we raise a sociopathic murder who tortures animals and kills children?

I mean, sure, I guess growing up with the mob will make some kid be a mobster, but then you have people with mental issues, and obcessive perosnalites that make them do things.

anway, what do you people think?
_________________
few runes short of a set of 27

[Amyral]

Unlike sexual preference, criminal activity is a specific action. As such, I don't buy that people are bred to be criminals at all. There may be some biological factor for a person to have deviant mindset, but I don't buy that people are bred to shoplift or to kill a person. I think that people in a specific environment can be, more or less, raised to be criminals. People can be raised to think certain criminal activities are fine and justified, and environment can cause people to have a lack of respect for authority.

[Luceit]

There was this one news that I read once about a boy who was encouraged to act like a gangster by his mother and that led to him killling a man.

Nevertheless, for the most part, I'd say that the actions of people around you affect how likely you are to become a criminal, depending on how much of a follower you are. To put it simply, a person cannot learn how to be good if no one around that person is good. Of ocurse, this is just speculation; I've seen children raised in perfect families commiting crimes anyway.
_________________

[Sniper_Zegai]

Hmmmm an interesting topic but I dont think criminals are born wrong. There are exceptions to the rule however such as people who suffer from psychosis or schizophrenia. But the vast majority I beleive are raised to towards a life of crime even if not intentionally by the people raising them but I definetly beleive parents can have a strong role in dictating whether or not their children will become criminals.
_________________

[Cloudless Eye]

Normally it's how they grow up that determines whether or not they become sick criminals. Look at most major stories: Edward Gein, grew up with a heavy christian mother who taught him that women were all whores.. And he grew up to be unappreciative of women and dug up there dead bodies. Another perfect example: Adolf Hitler. That guy had one of the most screwed up childhoods I've ever had the benefit of reading, and he turned out to be an extreme hater of jews.
_________________
Hello. How are you?

[Sniper_Zegai]

Another strong peice of evidence for the "made a criminal" camp.

Most if not all the extreme and violent criminals Ive ever heard of were made that way from incredibly screwed up childhoods. Hell, most of them killed their parents.
_________________

[Yvl]

Depends. There are schizofrenics out there that think that their neighbor's dog ordered them to kill dozens of people, but there are also people who have been neglected, overprotected, and / or beaten in their childhood.
_________________

[Sniper_Zegai]

Fair enough Im sure there is a decent amount of murderers who have tried to say that they are insane or "Dr. Phil gave me orders to kill through the radio" but Im sure for the most part the systen can weed out those people.
_________________

[Tullaryx]

I believe that criminals, especially sociopathic ones, are made by their environment, treatment and experiences as they grow up. Even individuals with mental difficulties and flaws could be reared and taught to be decent individuals who wouldn't harm a fly much less another person. It's why killers and violent criminals rarely win cases where they used genetics as their defense.

Now, being criminally insane is a different matter altogether since an individual doesn't have to any sort of mental defect to be insane. Again, upbringing and life experiences can have a major effect in how an individual's mental health develops.
_________________

[kuwaizair]

[Sniper_Zegai]

I beleive people who kill "in the name of god" or "because satan made me do it" are just the same as any other loony mentioned before. Its just that god and satan were the subjects of choice.

If someone says a god told me to do it and another said a squirrel ordered me to do it. Id put them in the same camp any sort of day. But people may be more sypathetic to people who lean on this angle. As ordinary people can be religous and its not uncommon for people to have dreams about angels or seeing dead relatives talk to them in dreams.

Although I beleive this is a pychiatric reaction to thing in their life. Alot of people think divine influence can make people do weird things.
_________________

[Yohn]

If you're raised to believe that certain things are not immoral (criminal activities and whatnot) by people who keep committing crimes and whatnot then you're probably not going to be the one to learn from your mistakes. You see this with a lot of drug dealers, come to think of it. A lot of the drug dealers nowadays had/have parents in the trade. And growing up where my mom was good friends with the daughter of one of the head honchos in the mafia in Chicago, you know that the kids born into that kind of lifestyle definitely stay "in the family."
_________________

"And as the lion slaughters man, I am the wolf and you're the lamb." ~Blind Guardian

[Fu Su Lu]

I would say that nurture is predominant here, in my opinion.
Altough of course, some people may have some predisposition, so their risk to become a criminal would be bigger.
_________________
The drunkest cavalry unit in the world.
Who lights a candle casts a shadow.
Uncle Weirdo is on hoilidays... by now

[LordKratos]

People's actions are affected by their environment if a person is in a bad environment where the person is treated like crap and are told they are crap day in and day out... That's the type of person I'd look at for a suspect of a murder case.

Now there are people who live in nurturing, loving homes but they just end up psychos and murderers. But one thing I do believe is that murderers are made and its is not in their blood.
_________________
IN AMERICA!

[Urn]

Well, from studying the biological and physiological nature of all the famous serial killers to date, I would say that the environment makes a murderer and a rapist. There is no proof that one can be bred, but there are plenty books and studies that show that one can be raised towards psychopathic tendencies.

Also, traumas to the head or traumatic events have also been linked between murderers. They used to belief that certain birth defects made one more susceptible towards violent behavior and that it could be passed down through genetics, but that research was inconclusive.

Unfortunately, all people have the potential for murder. The events we go through in our lives make us more susceptible to violence.
_________________
~ Humbly walk the path of death

KOOLUK SUPPORTS TINTO MINERS