Bruno_Vieira t1_j6gx1zh wrote on January 30, 2023 at 6:03 AM

Reply to comment by glitter_h1ppo in Study uncovers a surprising level of heterogeneity in psychopathy among condemned capital murderers: While a substantial proportion of the offenders exhibited heightened psychopathic features, others showed no signs of psychopathy by HeinieKaboobler

I mean, the main thing about it has always been lack of empathy right? Being impulsive does not make one a psychopath. I am sure a lot of the inmates are impulsive. Regardless, what this shows in my opinion is that most people seem to think of murder as something absolutely alien nowadays but it really isn’t. It can happen for several different reasons and it used to be extremely common. To assume that inmates who are locked for murder would be mostly psychopaths is extremely gullible. In my opinion it even shows a huge lack of understanding of the human nature and the human condition, not exactly a characteristic you’d expect to find in psychologists.

nyet-marionetka t1_j6hko6m wrote on January 30, 2023 at 11:20 AM

Regular people can turn off their empathy if they make it a priority.

blastuponsometerries t1_j6ifsj8 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 3:49 PM

Even the most "normal" person is not exactly a highly rational or compassionate creature all the time. Nobody has a perfect platonic human mind.

Normal people can experience problematic mental states briefly, or under extreme stress.

Mental illness (seems to my uninformed opinion at least) to be more about those who get "stuck" in states for dangerously long periods of time (perhaps even their whole life).

The question for the criminal justice system is, if you take away blaming individuals as bad/immoral/evil people, what are we left with?

Instead of a system based on punishment and violence, it would focus on protecting society as a whole as the primary objective. Remove those that are an immediate danger, rehabilitate those who can be, and seclude those who can't.

The punitive nature of deterrence has shown over and over to be ineffective at actually reducing crime meaningfully. In fact, it exacerbates crime and hurts everyone else too. But people want to harm bad people, so we continue in a self destructive cycle.