[Lady Sidhe]

Here's more from Hazelwood that I thought bore passing on. Bear in mind that this man has interviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of murderers and sexual deviants, and helped to create the FBI's BSU, better known as the serial crime profiling unit.


The following are direct quotes, from the same book I cited earlier.


"Any purported explanation for why an individual commits violence is incomplete if it ignores the most important variable, the criminal himself. Each person is a unique product of nature and nurture, genetic destiny, and environmental influences....so while a number of factors seem to contribute to the genesis of an offender, no single element is the cause of deviant behavior."

Here are some of his thoughts on the more common theories:

POVERTY: A great number of offenders come from poor families, and a great number of them don't. For every criminal raised in a poverty-stricken environment, we can find countless law-abiding citizens who overcome that disadvantage to lead honest lives.

CHILDHOOD ABUSE: My research on serial rape supports the view that a large number of sexual criminals have been childhood victims of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse. Yet, as is true with poverty, there are many more abused kids who do not become violent as adults.

VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA: Movies and television often are blamed for glamorizing violence. In 1977, a 15-year-old Florida youth named Ronny Zamora claimed in court that he killed an elderly female neighbor because of "television intoxication." Zamora's attorney said his client had become addicted to violence by watching television. Fortunately for society, the jurors didn't buy into that theory.

Books, magazines, and music have also been faulted for promoting violence. Rap music, especially, has been accused of objectifying women and using gender-demeaning terminology in the lyrics. While I might not personally appreciate certain kinds of music or films, behavioral studies do not suggest that men who watch or listen to them are, as a result, driven to commit crimes. Certainly offenders with preexisting fantasiesmight seek out such stimulation and even attempt to incorporate some of its elements into future crimes. But to say that a cause-and-effect relationship exists is simply not supported by scientific inquiry.

PORNOGRAPHY: Speaking as a professional, I have to say that I don't believe that it causes sexual violence.
In my experience, education, and training led me to believe that pornography contributes, both passively and actively, to sexual violence in some individuals, in that it it may play an important role in the process that leads to violent sexual assault by providing offenders with a continuous source of new ideas.
From my interviews with rapists, sexual killers, child molesters, sexual sadists, and the wives and companions of these sexually violent men, I know that ritualistic sexual offenders not only own pornography, but they typically collect it. They pore over it, spending endless hours with a favorite picture or video, all the while reinforcing the aberrant fantasy.

GENETICS: Some years ago, a new theory connected the presence of an extra "Y" chromosome in a male's genetic material to a superabundance of testosterone, which was believed to result in violent behavior. No one has ever developed scientific evidence to support this theory, and it is largely discounted today.
A more recent, and also unsubstantiated, hypothesis holds that individuals can inherit a gene that predisposes them to commit criminal acts. This genetic explanation of criminality poses an interesting dilemma for sociologists, psychologists, criminologists, and penologists.
If such behaviors are determined from birth, professionals could do little to prevent them; rehabilitation would be a hopeless task. I believe that this theory will prove to be another false lead in the quest to understand violence in our society.
Still another theory, recently advanced by so-called Evolutionary Psychologists, takes the radical view that rape is a natural biological phenomenon. To paraphrase one adherent, rape is an unfortunate but nonetheless adaptive strategy for passing on one's genes. In my view, this reasoning will go the way of the extra Y chromosome theory.

INSANITY: It's all too easy to dismiss the offender as being "sick," "perverted," or "deranged." However, this assumption does not explain the 97% of crimes committed by individuals who are not psychotic (insane).
One of the more esoteric explanations for criminal behavior I have heard is brain shrinkage. This theory says that one should not be held responsible for one's acts because the brain has shrunk, thus affecting the ability to discern right from wrong. (it was used in a case of embezzlement, and was not accepted by the jury--LS)

BLOOD SUGAR IMBALANCE: Even junk food has been blamed for causing violence. In San Francisco in November of 1978, Supvr. Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were gunned down at city hall by Supvr. Dan White. At the trial, the attorney for White blamed his client's violent behavior in part on the inordinate number of twinkies that White had consumed.


"I'm confident that no single factor of any sort will ever suffice to explain the millions of variations that occur among individuals. No two peole are alike, and the factors that combine to cause people to turn to violence will always be unique.

Perhaps the most obvious (and most frightening) explanation of all is that some offenders commit crimes simply because they want to! They like it! And they have no regard for what the rest of society thinks.

This is the dark mind's most disturbing corner of all."



Sidhe