Nurture vs Nature : Violence
School shootings, serial killers, and violent children. All awful tragedies that unfortunately take place every day in our society, but why? Why do these terrible things happened? The answer is obnoxiously obvious: People have the capacity to do very bad things. Sometimes they need to and sometimes it's because they want to and the reasoning behind these individuals is perplexing. Anytime a shooting occurs, kids lash out, or horrible things happen by the hands of humans, people instantly jump to the conclusion that the person responsible for that tragedy is a product of neglectful parents, childhood abuse, or having grown up in a bad neighborhood. And many times this is true, those who commit violent crimes often …show more content…
Can we identify violent people before they hurt someone? Is there a genetic link between serial killers like Jeffery Dahmer, mass shooters like Adam Lanza, and roadside shooters like Jason Dalton? Some believe that past experiences and they way one was raised is still the only way to identify violent individuals. According to the Center for Disease Control, “neglected children are to be at least 25% more likely to experience problems such as delinquency, teen pregnancy, and low academic achievement”. Also, a National Institute of Justice study indicated that “being abused or neglected as a child increased the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 59%”. Abuse and neglect also increased the likelihood of adult criminal behavior by 28% and violent crime by 30%. While a striking number of children who had abhorrent childhoods do move on to a life of crime, an even larger number of them make a better lives for themselves. And according to a study done by Dr. Helen Morrison, in which she interviewed 135 serial killers, she found that just a little over half of them reported maltreatment. Which in the context of serial killers, which are often thought to be the worst of the worst, is intriguingly low. There are also cases where you can see the same behavior throughout the whole family. Researcher, Daniel Weinberger, conducted a study on a Dutch family that had a history of violent rape, assault, and arson. He found that the entire family had a genetic condition in which a variant in a gene that codes for a protein called atechol-O-methlytransferase (COMT). Like the warrior gene, COMT regulates dopamine. The study, which appeared in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, concluded that “the COMT variant, and the cellular dysfunction that it contributes to, was a plausible
School shootings, serial killers, and violent children. All awful tragedies that unfortunately take place every day in our society, but why? Why do these terrible things happened? The answer is obnoxiously obvious: People have the capacity to do very bad things. Sometimes they need to and sometimes it's because they want to and the reasoning behind these individuals is perplexing. Anytime a shooting occurs, kids lash out, or horrible things happen by the hands of humans, people instantly jump to the conclusion that the person responsible for that tragedy is a product of neglectful parents, childhood abuse, or having grown up in a bad neighborhood. And many times this is true, those who commit violent crimes often …show more content…
Can we identify violent people before they hurt someone? Is there a genetic link between serial killers like Jeffery Dahmer, mass shooters like Adam Lanza, and roadside shooters like Jason Dalton? Some believe that past experiences and they way one was raised is still the only way to identify violent individuals. According to the Center for Disease Control, “neglected children are to be at least 25% more likely to experience problems such as delinquency, teen pregnancy, and low academic achievement”. Also, a National Institute of Justice study indicated that “being abused or neglected as a child increased the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 59%”. Abuse and neglect also increased the likelihood of adult criminal behavior by 28% and violent crime by 30%. While a striking number of children who had abhorrent childhoods do move on to a life of crime, an even larger number of them make a better lives for themselves. And according to a study done by Dr. Helen Morrison, in which she interviewed 135 serial killers, she found that just a little over half of them reported maltreatment. Which in the context of serial killers, which are often thought to be the worst of the worst, is intriguingly low. There are also cases where you can see the same behavior throughout the whole family. Researcher, Daniel Weinberger, conducted a study on a Dutch family that had a history of violent rape, assault, and arson. He found that the entire family had a genetic condition in which a variant in a gene that codes for a protein called atechol-O-methlytransferase (COMT). Like the warrior gene, COMT regulates dopamine. The study, which appeared in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, concluded that “the COMT variant, and the cellular dysfunction that it contributes to, was a plausible