Demonological Theory Essay

Demonological or also known as spiritual explanations of a crime use other worldly powers, religious beliefs, and supernatural powers to explain why someone committed a crime. Such explanations can be used to explain the behavior of Tiequon Cox who with his gang members murdered four people in the morning on a Friday August 31, 1984. Cox is described very often as an evil, and a monster at the same time. His behavior to innocent people seems like something that a person from hell would only commit. They have to ask a question “How would someone commit such a violent crime?”. People who can not find a normal, psychological explanation for a crime, tend to use demonological explanation to give them the feeling of understanding or even a closure.

In the same way how Charlie Manson was trying to make himself look like pure evil, Tiequon Cox made himself into looking as evil as possible. His emotionless appearance, and body build like a mountain of muscles can contribute to believe that he is form hell. Through out the book by Kermit Alexander we can find a lot of references that tie to the demonological theory. Horace Burns who is the other convicted killer that assisted Cox with the murder, stated while in custody that he wants to take his own life, but he is scared of hell so he wont do it. Being religious in my opinion shapes people in one way or another. Growing up with strong spirituality, and being taught values that religion can teach us, help to fight the urges that are so hard to resist. An example of that can be Kermit Alexander himself, being raised with strong religious values because his mother was passionate Catholic, and his grandfather was a pastor at the African Methodist church. Kermit knew what kind of decisions are good, and what decisions are bad for the future outcome of his actions. The book itself is named after a biblical psalm, which lets us to believe that Alexander was raised, and still is a religious person. Alexanders

We try to make the decisions that are favorable to us. People who are left with a choice are always counting if the outcome of possible decision is worth getting in trouble for. Calculating is a process that Cox, Burns and Williams had to do when they decided to chose the thug life. Joining a gang is possibly the worst decision someone can make in their life, wasting their youth on drugs, violence, and hardcore life always will end bad. The convicted of killing the four innocent people, because they had a wrong address, was their own personal decision that turned bad for them. Even if those guys have hit the right house and killed the other gang members its still not worth of going to jail and being placed on death row for. Tiequon Cox when younger had a chance to turn his life around, he was good at sports, but his behavior eliminated him from “normal” teen life and opened him to the gang world. Classical theory explains that there is a availability for alternative choices, but as stated before, Cox had nobody to tell him better when he was growing