What makes a criminal? What makes someone intentionally want to cause harm to other people? The type of environment a person grows up in could dictate whether or not they become a criminal. If a person grows up in a home where criminal behavior is normal, and they become desensitized to that type of behavior, they may grow up believing there is no harm in it. If you look at a criminal’s background, they normally don’t come from a happy home. Drug addicted parents, and police constantly showing up at your home normally don’t lead to a successful adult life. But a person’s childhood isn’t the only thing that can lead to criminal behavior. The loss of a job can cause someone to be desperate for money. This desperation can lead a person to make
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Abuse or neglect from a parent or guardian can lead a child to have a top dog mentality. ¨As a child left to fend for yourself, you learn very quickly that if you 're not "top dog", then you 're the underdog - someone else 's victim¨ (Batmanghelidj). Children with this kind of mentality tend to be cold, and lacking empathy. Research shows that children who are raised in an abusive home may be more likely to be easily agitated, highly aggressive, and less likely to correctly assess a situation. A child may think it entirely reasonable to shoplift if they are hungry. They may also attack others to lift themselves up; children who are used to being on the bottom get a high from attacking or humiliating others. They feel like they are part of a sort of food chain, and have to get to the …show more content…
His parents got divorced when he was ten years old, and he lived with his father in Pendleton, NY. He claims to be the victim of bullying, and recounts dreaming of retaliating against his bullies. But later in life he had come to the conclusion that the United States government was the ultimate bully. McVeigh was outraged by acts such as the standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho against Randy Weave. Randy, his wife, and his young child were all killed in the standoff. Other incidents such as the Waco, Texas standoff caused McVeigh to “snap”. He believed the government was being cruel to the citizens of America, and believed they should be punished. His form of punishment was loading a rented Ryder truck with upwards of 5000 pounds of ammonium nitrate. The bomb detonated near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building, killing 168 people, multiple of which were children, and injuring over 600 more. McVeigh later admitted he did not know that there were children present in the building, and that he would have picked a different target if he did know. McVeigh was not a born psychopath. He did not wish to cause terror in the lives of hundreds of innocent people and children, but he did want his government to know how fed up he was with the treatment of American citizens. Saying he was forced to do what he did is ridiculous, but in his eyes criminal behavior was the best way to handle the
Abuse or neglect from a parent or guardian can lead a child to have a top dog mentality. ¨As a child left to fend for yourself, you learn very quickly that if you 're not "top dog", then you 're the underdog - someone else 's victim¨ (Batmanghelidj). Children with this kind of mentality tend to be cold, and lacking empathy. Research shows that children who are raised in an abusive home may be more likely to be easily agitated, highly aggressive, and less likely to correctly assess a situation. A child may think it entirely reasonable to shoplift if they are hungry. They may also attack others to lift themselves up; children who are used to being on the bottom get a high from attacking or humiliating others. They feel like they are part of a sort of food chain, and have to get to the …show more content…
His parents got divorced when he was ten years old, and he lived with his father in Pendleton, NY. He claims to be the victim of bullying, and recounts dreaming of retaliating against his bullies. But later in life he had come to the conclusion that the United States government was the ultimate bully. McVeigh was outraged by acts such as the standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho against Randy Weave. Randy, his wife, and his young child were all killed in the standoff. Other incidents such as the Waco, Texas standoff caused McVeigh to “snap”. He believed the government was being cruel to the citizens of America, and believed they should be punished. His form of punishment was loading a rented Ryder truck with upwards of 5000 pounds of ammonium nitrate. The bomb detonated near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building, killing 168 people, multiple of which were children, and injuring over 600 more. McVeigh later admitted he did not know that there were children present in the building, and that he would have picked a different target if he did know. McVeigh was not a born psychopath. He did not wish to cause terror in the lives of hundreds of innocent people and children, but he did want his government to know how fed up he was with the treatment of American citizens. Saying he was forced to do what he did is ridiculous, but in his eyes criminal behavior was the best way to handle the