One in five murders of children are committed by other children. For many people, children who kill are monstrous and it is unthinkable. These kids were once rare deviants but here lately it’s becoming more common place. I would like to explore this phenomenon by looking at the Mcdonald triad theory that uses three main variables, animal cruelty, pyromania, and enuresis during childhood and/or adolescence to explain aggression that graduates to violent crimes against humans. For example, Tallihet and Hensley (2008) asserts that youthful animal abusers graduate to later aggression against humans. This hypothesis known as the “graduation hypothesis” is now accepted by clinicians, social scientist, law enforcement, and animal advocates. In Singer …show more content…
Many researchers have questioned the validity of this triad since its inception, including John Macdonald himself. The extent to which cruelty to animals, firesetting, and enuresis in childhood and or adolescence are collectively or individually predictive of future violence has not been established by a consistent body of empirical research. Mcdonald’s 1963 research assessed mental patients which suggest that mental disorder was an intervening variable such that triad behaviors are more likely to be predictive of threats of violence when mental disorder is present (Ryan, …show more content…
Slavkin (2001) citing Quinsey et al., 1989; Sakkeim & Osborn, 1999; Sakheim, Osborn, & Abrams, 1991; Saunders & Awad, 1991, juvenile firesetters have been reported to be more likely than other groups of juveniles to display cruelty to children or animals, as well as to have difficulties with enuresis. Justice, Justice, and Kraft (1974) question whether the ego triad (interchangeable with the Macdonald triad) is an adequate predictor of violent behavior in adulthood. They asserted that the ego triad largely has been found to occur simultaneously with factors that may be predictors of violent adult behaviors. Drawing on the results of the Slavkin (2001) study, he concluded that the hypothesis tested in his study was that the presence of enuresis and cruelty to animals in juvenile firesetters would be significantly related to recidivist firesetting. He also found that although cruelty to animals seems to hold potential as a predictor of recidivistic firesetting, it is most likely an externalizing behavior that correlates highly with delinquency. Justice, Justice, and Kraft (1974) have asserted that the ego triad largely occurs simultaneously with factors that may be better predictors or violent adult
The disordered coping fire setter will set dangerous and frequent fires that cannot be ignored, justified, or explained. This type of fire setter appears to have more symptoms related to emotional dysfunction and poor connection to people than any other type of fire setters. This type does not seek help for their problems, does not expect help, and has very poor coping strategies when facing moments of stress. They suffer from a failure to meet social expectations, standards, and values. Simply put, the disordered coping fire setter begins to get into trouble everywhere and with everything at a very young age. Gender differences are not as pronounced in this type of fire setters as both boys and girls experience the same behaviors until around the age of fourteen. Both the girls and boys describe growing up in a chaotic family environment with feelings of extreme anger most of the time. Studies have shown that more girls in this subtype will express remorse for their actions, but the boys will not. The boys will continue setting fires into adult life, but the girls in this group of fire setters, by age fourteen, will move onto high risk sexual
The nurturing of individuals plays a role in the making of killers, as 94% of serial killers had experienced some form of abuse as children and 42% have suffered severe physical abuse (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2010). A child abuse is a determining factor, in which supports the idea that serial killers and psychopath, are influenced significantly by nurture (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011). In most cases social, cultural and physiological determinants all play a role in influencing serial killers to grow into a mass murderer. It is important that physiological and social determinants can be identified, so they could be altered for the purpose of preventing the number of crime.
Hickey (1997), in his trauma control model of the serial killer, argues that various factors can contribute to criminality and in particular to serial homicide. These factors can be biological, developmental, demographic or familial, including childhood trauma (Hickey, 1997, as cited in Miller, 2014, p17). Hickey’s model includes 8 elements – Predispositional factors, Traumatic events, Low self-esteem and fantasies, Increasingly violent fantasies, Trauma reinforces, Facilitators, Dissociation and Homicidal behaviour (Hickey, 2016, p149).
In many cases, serial killers began their lives as remotely normal human beings. Most, however, have detectable characteristics of murderers before they hit puberty. Otis O’toole, for example, started a neighbourhood fire when he was six. George Adorno was even younger when he first displayed his pyromaniac tendencies by setting fire to his own sister when he was four. Along with pyromaniac behavior, other often-cited warning signs are enuresis (bed-wetting) and cruelty toward animals. Often, serial murderers are abused physically, psychologically, and sexually as children, sometimes from a stranger, but in most cases from a trusted family member or friend. Typically, they come from broken families, usually...
Nurture versus nature has been a long-standing debate. Nature, also known as pro-heredity in this essay, is about what a person’s genetic predispositions are related to behavior and intentions. The Monoamine Oxidase A gene (MAO-A) has earned the nickname “warrior gene” because it has been linked to aggression in observational and survey-based studies (Johnson and Tingley). In an actual study, a man named Jim Fallon, who has studied the biological basis for behavior for nearly 20 years, discovered he had the particular variant, MAO-A, that diminishes the calming effects of serotonin. Not only did Fallon discover this, he also found out that “one of his direct great-grandfathers…was hanged for murdering his mother. That line… produced seven other murderers… Lizzy Borden… ‘Cousin Lizzy’… was accused… of killing her father and stepmother with an ax…” (Hagerty). This is surely due to the fact that this compulsion to killing was inherited down the family lines.
Twardosz, S., & Lutzker, J. R. (2010). Child maltreatment and the developing brain: A review of neuroscience perspectives. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 15(1), 59-68.
Markowitz, F. E. (2011). Mental illness, crime, and violence: Risk, context, and social control. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 36-44.
Most serial murderers have been deprived of any control over their home, their body, and their entire life. “Psychokillers take their fantasies and make them a reality living their dreams” (Serial Killers: Nature vs. Nurture 2). Both physical and especially emotional abuse is the consistent, reoccurring factor among a majority of serial killers. Traumatic abuse in childhood has long been viewed as a primary cause of violent behavior in adulthood (Dolan 24). Abusive parents do not generally vent their anger equally on all their children. Such parents tend to unleash the anger and negative emotions on their more difficult children; this potential aggression and physical and emotional abuse of the child shapes the future criminal. “Most serial murders are not classified as psychotics, but rather as psychopaths- their perception of reality is clear except that they feel no social or moral obligations” () Killers are taking control of their own lives through their fantasies in the only way they know fit, through
Raine states: “ So, in the 1950s, little toddlers were playing outside, putting their fingers in dirt, putting their fingers in their mouths and absorbing the lead. Twenty years later, they became the next generation of violent criminal offenders because violence peaks at about 19 or 20. Then what happens is in the 1990s violence begins to come down, as it's been doing. What's partly explaining that? The reduction in lead in the environment (Raine, NPR).” This shows a biological connection to serial killer behavior. Temporal lobe or amygdala damage can show signs of psychopathy, which can lead to serial killer behavior (Kiehl, Bates, Laurens, Hare, & Liddle, 2006). Violent behavior has also been linked to deficiency in serotonin and high level of testosterone. Growing up in an unhealthy environment is also common in most serial killers. Sexual abuse, physical abuse, and mental abuse in a childhood home breeds serial killers. If someone grows up witnessing violence, it ingrains in their minds that violent behavior is okay. Before a serial killer commits a crime, they may be quiet, reserved, and keep to himself. In this stage, they are usually going on with their regular lifestyle. After a crime, they may taunt the media/police with notes and clues, as well as go on a killing spree. This is because some killers become obsessed with the urge to kill. Some may go as far as contacting the victim’s family. A fantasy is an elaborate
Silver, Eric. 2006. “Understanding the Relationship between Mental Disorder and Violence: The Need for a Criminological Perspective.” Law and Human Behavior 30(6):685-706.
Dorn, R., Volavka, J., & Johnson, N. (2012). Mental disorder and violence: is there a relationship beyond substance use?. Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 47(3), 487-503. doi:10.1007/s00127-011-0356-x
Most serial killers exhibit three symptoms as children that would be considered warning flags. This is known as the “triad of Sociopathy […] the triad consists of bed-wetting after the age of five, cruelty to animals and arson or an interest in fire” (Weatherby, Buller, McGinnis). This is supported by John E. Douglas, a FBI profiler, who helped capture many serial killers. In his interviews with serial killers, he found out that most were abused by one of their parents, mostly by their mother. In one of his first interviews, the man’s mother was friendly towards everyone outside of her home, “yet at home, she treated her timid son as if he were dirt” (Douglas, John E.). The abuse would have further led to development as every killer’s brain examined by Jim Fallon, a neuroscientist, “had damage to their orbital cortex. How you end up with a psychopath and a killer depends on when the damage is done” (Fallon, Jim). Another factor that influences the development of a serial killer is that most killers have too much serotonin. This is caused by the “major violence genes [… which are] in the normal population […and are] sex length. It’s [loc...
4. Dodge, Kenneth A., John E. Bates, and Gregory S. Pettit. 1990. “Mechanisms in the Cycle of Violence.” Science 250: 1678–83.
Many people claim that the child did not know any better, or that he was brought up with the idea that this behavior is acceptable. Although there is some truth to these allegations, the reality of this social issue is far more complex. Therefore we ask the question, "Should childhood offenders of capital crimes be treated as adults?" To begin with, numerous reasons for why a child acts in the manner he exhibits and why he continues to exert such dangerous and even fatal schemes. Recent research shows that factors ranging from inherited personality traits to chemical imbalances and damages suffered in the womb can increase the odds that a child will become violent (Johnson 234).
The question of whether or not man is predetermined at birth to lead a life of crime is a question that has been debated for decades. Serial killers are made not born; it has been demonstrated that a man 's initial years are the most vital years. A youngster 's initial couple of years is a period of experimentation, a period to make sense of things for themselves, a period to set up the bits of the riddle. Like a newborn child, the mental health is reliant on its environment. A youthful youngster 's mind resembles a wipe; it gathers data through perception. The surroundings of a serial killer as a little child can enormously impact the way he or she will go about his or her life and his or her style of murdering. Certain experience, for example, youngster misuse, divorce, liquor misuse, tyke disregard, as well as medication misuse, can be negative to the advancement of a little child. Numerous serial killers were illegitimate kids. Due to their childhood and early backgrounds, serial killers swing to crazy murdering frenzies.