Psychopaths: Born evil or with a diseased brain?

[Jazzy]

When Brian Dugan pleaded guilty to the brutal rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl, Jeanine Nicarico, he seemed to be the very sketch of a brutal serial killer.



She had been murdered in 1983, though Dugan only pleaded guilty in 2009. By then, he had also been convicted of rape several times over, and the murder of two others - another seven-year-old girl and a 27-year-old nurse whom he ran off the road before raping and killing her.



If the death sentence had not been withdrawn in Illinois, Dugan would have been executed.



Yet strikingly, he showed no remorse for any of his murders or crimes. Scientists now believe this lack of empathy may in fact be linked to the reason he committed these acts.



Neuroscientist Dr Kent Kiehl of the University of New Mexico scanned Dugan's brain, as part of a unique project to understand how anti-social behaviour is related to brain structure and function.



He struggles to try and understand why people even care about what he did, says Kiehl, describing his time interviewing Dugan. Clinically, it is fascinating.



Dr Kiehl is seen as a pioneer in a cutting-edge area of behavioural neuroscience: the attempt to understand psychopaths' brain functions and use this to develop treatments for their condition.



It is controversial because for thousands of years, men like Dugan have been labelled not as ill, but as evil.



In literature and cinema, the term psychopath is not used for a diagnosis for which we might have sympathy, but rather as something we might fear.



Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15386740

 

[Evil Eye]

Uhuh.

So if we sentence them all to death, we'll essentially be breeding for non-psychopaths?

 

[DrLeftover]

Before I comment, you need to read this:

Serial killers and politicians share traits



http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/serial-killers-and-politicians-share-traits

 

[Evil Eye]

Before I comment, you need to read this:

Ok, I read it. Go on.

 

[DrLeftover]

Should have been self explanatory given the title of the article.

 

[The Dragon Master]

I don't think you're either born with a diseased brain or you're born normally. Psychotic diseases are due to a combination of things. Two people might be susceptible in developing Schizophrenia, but only one might actually be diagnosed with it due to factors of the environment that they grew up in.

 

[Evil Eye]

Are there any other options besides born evil or diseased?

Should there be?

I'd be worried if evil was a choice.

 

[Fatal Dawn]

Should there be?

I'd be worried if evil was a choice.

Besides factors of nature, like The Dragon Master said there could be factors of nurture.



Really, The Dragon Master's post was spot on. There might be a combination of different things. You throw a cat into the jungle don't be surprised if it returns a lion. It's a Hobson's choice dilemma.