Fateful Recidivism

[DanaC]

*nods* Poor kid. Poor mum too.

Raises some interesting questions about nature and nurture, but also around intervention. Since we have all this evidence to suggest early signs of psycopathic and sociopathic tendencies...

[Queen of the Ryche]

I agree tendencies may pre-exist. I think nature vs nurture is about 50/50, but the nurture half needs to have consistency for these special individuals to overcome the nasty nature. (Definitely not the case with this little darling - mom has spent years of anguish consulting several specialists, trying different meds to find the right mix - then she goes to daddy's house, where the step monster is verbally abusive, and daddy thinks God will heal her, stops giving her the meds, and she's back to square one.)

[ZenGum]

Regarding nature Vs Nurture, Hare's book details various cases of psychopaths who had some identifiable trauma in their early childhood years, but also has many cases where there is no apparent trauma, and siblings who turn out fine, but one kid is just a monster. Nurture (well, environment really) can cause psychopathy, but it does seem that some people are literally born psychopaths. There is no known treatment and in fact psychopaths don't want treatment; they are happy little maniacs.

Most states in Australia have provisions for the indefinite detention of people who are deemed to be a threat to the community even after their punitive sentences are completed. I support these - in the old days such people would probably have been executed, now we just keep them out of circulation.

QotR .... isn't withholding medicine child neglect/abuse, which warrants loosing access rights? Guy is an idiot, at best.

[lumberjim]

my dad had a neighbor for a while that was evil. he was 3yrs old. the dog hated him...and he would do some really nasty stuff.