Sympathy for the Devil?
Sympathy for the Devil? by Ellie Ben-Zion
Are psychopaths deserving of the criminal punishment they receive? In this heated article, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, a New York Times best selling author, gets into the nitty gritty of what most people don't want to consider. She explores how much of a criminal's behavior is controllable and tackles battling arguments between doctors on the subject. Hagerty's article also showed me a lot about relatively new technology that gives us a lot of insight into the brains of "psychopaths".
A doctor named Kent Kiehl is practically an expert on psychopaths. He uses a mobile MRI to travel to maximum- security prisons and test inmates on their psychopathy levels. Pause! Who knew that there was a test? I certainly didn't realize these characteristics were so black and white, but apparently it is! Doctors are able to test psychopathy levels by using an MRI while flashing three photos during the brain scan to see what parts of the brain activate. There is also a Hare Psychopathy Checklist which measures the inability to feel remorse, impulsive behavior, and pathological lying. Moving on!
Kiehl claims the first clue to a psychopath is their intense stare, as if they are "trying to pick up signals on how to respond." He took some time researching a psychopath that he was hired by the defense for. The criminal, Brian Dugan, ranked 38.5 on the Checklist (ranging from 0 to 40), who is serving two life sentences after pleading guilty for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in 1983. Dugan shared with Kiehl that when he attempted to rob this home he simply "clicked" when he saw the little girl and turned into "Mr. Hyde", the evil alter ego of a doctor in a Scottish novela made in the 1880's.
Hagerty describes Dugan as looking completely calm and normal besides his orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. However, Dugan is not "normal". His IQ is over 140 but admits to his shallow emotions. Dugan shares that when he begins to feel empathy, some unknown force within him puts a stop to it. Kiehl, not surprised, says that psychopaths always claim they feel terrible about their crimes but when prompted to further that explanation "What do you mean you feel really bad?", they look back helplessly.
Kiehl reminds us that psychopaths have different physical brain structures stopping them from accessing their emotions like most people. Out of the 1,100 inmates that he has scanned, 20% of them turned out to be psychopathic. During morally objectionable photos of the the brain scan, a "normal" person's limbic system would naturally react. This limbic system is what Kiehl calls the "emotional circuit". When testing Dugan, the limbic system does not quite engage. Kiehl believes this may be what stops people from committing criminal activity and that people with this brain difference cannot be fully responsible for their actions. In his argument, psychopaths have low emotional IQ's like little children and maybe they aren't deserving of the punishment they receive.
Dugan's lawyers during the trial argued that he knew right from wrong, however in the moment he was incapable of making the right decision. Someone shouldn't be executed for a condition that is not their fault. His lawyer admitted that the crime itself was Dugan's fault but Dugan never said it wasn't his fault and that he should get a free pass. However Dugan and his lawyers stressed that he should not be killed for being born a certain way.
On the other hand, psychologist Steven Erickson brings up the fact that alcoholics have brain abnormalities. I'm sure we are all familiar with the term "addictive personality". However, drunk drivers still obviously get penalized for killing someone. He furthers his argument by bringing up people who suffer from depression. They have brain abnormalities as well. Erickson points the argument back at what I believe we should be paying our attention to, the system in place. "The law is interested in whether or not someone at the time that the criminal act occurred understood the difference between right and wrong."
According to Clark Merrefield in Should Juvenile Criminals Be Sentences Like Adults?, a quarter of a million teenagers under 18 pass through the adult justice system each year but in 2005 a law was made that if the crime was made before the person was before the age of 18, the death penalty is out of the question.
So to the courts, children cannot be penalized as "normal" adults. In court, people with low IQs get treated differently, they cannot get the death penalty. Maybe Dugan in fact did not know right from wrong. Perhaps everyone has a different perception of right and wrong.
Maybe more people are psychopathic than we think, but we do not see people running around casually murdering each other either. To what extent can behavior be acknowledged, excused, or maybe prevented.
Clearly there is an array of brain abnormalities that people suffer from. Maybe the perception from the justice system needs to be altered. In the end, reincarceration rates show that the system does not work. Many people cannot be considered "normal" and it should not be expected anymore.
The prison system should not have its main focus be finding who is to blame. It should be helping those in need while trying to keep everyone safe. I believe that what is important is people's safety but also taking preventative actions within family, education, and workplace, etc., on mental/emotional health. Children get check ups at the beginning of every school year to get all sorts of medical exams but mental health is not part of it and is clearly a neglected area. The brain is a muscle that can be exercised and treated, as a nation, we should pay more attention to that muscle from birth.
Primary Source: Hagerty, Barbara Bradley. “Inside A Psychopath's Brain: The Sentencing Debate.” NPR, NPR, 30 June 2010, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128116806.
Secondary Source: Merrefield, Clark. “Should Juvenile Criminals Be Sentenced Like Adults?” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 26 Nov. 2012, www.thedailybeast.com/should-juvenile-criminals-be-sentenced-like-adults.
Are psychopaths deserving of the criminal punishment they receive? In this heated article, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, a New York Times best selling author, gets into the nitty gritty of what most people don't want to consider. She explores how much of a criminal's behavior is controllable and tackles battling arguments between doctors on the subject. Hagerty's article also showed me a lot about relatively new technology that gives us a lot of insight into the brains of "psychopaths".
A doctor named Kent Kiehl is practically an expert on psychopaths. He uses a mobile MRI to travel to maximum- security prisons and test inmates on their psychopathy levels. Pause! Who knew that there was a test? I certainly didn't realize these characteristics were so black and white, but apparently it is! Doctors are able to test psychopathy levels by using an MRI while flashing three photos during the brain scan to see what parts of the brain activate. There is also a Hare Psychopathy Checklist which measures the inability to feel remorse, impulsive behavior, and pathological lying. Moving on!
Kiehl claims the first clue to a psychopath is their intense stare, as if they are "trying to pick up signals on how to respond." He took some time researching a psychopath that he was hired by the defense for. The criminal, Brian Dugan, ranked 38.5 on the Checklist (ranging from 0 to 40), who is serving two life sentences after pleading guilty for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in 1983. Dugan shared with Kiehl that when he attempted to rob this home he simply "clicked" when he saw the little girl and turned into "Mr. Hyde", the evil alter ego of a doctor in a Scottish novela made in the 1880's.
Hagerty describes Dugan as looking completely calm and normal besides his orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. However, Dugan is not "normal". His IQ is over 140 but admits to his shallow emotions. Dugan shares that when he begins to feel empathy, some unknown force within him puts a stop to it. Kiehl, not surprised, says that psychopaths always claim they feel terrible about their crimes but when prompted to further that explanation "What do you mean you feel really bad?", they look back helplessly.
Kiehl reminds us that psychopaths have different physical brain structures stopping them from accessing their emotions like most people. Out of the 1,100 inmates that he has scanned, 20% of them turned out to be psychopathic. During morally objectionable photos of the the brain scan, a "normal" person's limbic system would naturally react. This limbic system is what Kiehl calls the "emotional circuit". When testing Dugan, the limbic system does not quite engage. Kiehl believes this may be what stops people from committing criminal activity and that people with this brain difference cannot be fully responsible for their actions. In his argument, psychopaths have low emotional IQ's like little children and maybe they aren't deserving of the punishment they receive.
Dugan's lawyers during the trial argued that he knew right from wrong, however in the moment he was incapable of making the right decision. Someone shouldn't be executed for a condition that is not their fault. His lawyer admitted that the crime itself was Dugan's fault but Dugan never said it wasn't his fault and that he should get a free pass. However Dugan and his lawyers stressed that he should not be killed for being born a certain way.
On the other hand, psychologist Steven Erickson brings up the fact that alcoholics have brain abnormalities. I'm sure we are all familiar with the term "addictive personality". However, drunk drivers still obviously get penalized for killing someone. He furthers his argument by bringing up people who suffer from depression. They have brain abnormalities as well. Erickson points the argument back at what I believe we should be paying our attention to, the system in place. "The law is interested in whether or not someone at the time that the criminal act occurred understood the difference between right and wrong."
According to Clark Merrefield in Should Juvenile Criminals Be Sentences Like Adults?, a quarter of a million teenagers under 18 pass through the adult justice system each year but in 2005 a law was made that if the crime was made before the person was before the age of 18, the death penalty is out of the question.
So to the courts, children cannot be penalized as "normal" adults. In court, people with low IQs get treated differently, they cannot get the death penalty. Maybe Dugan in fact did not know right from wrong. Perhaps everyone has a different perception of right and wrong.
Maybe more people are psychopathic than we think, but we do not see people running around casually murdering each other either. To what extent can behavior be acknowledged, excused, or maybe prevented.
Clearly there is an array of brain abnormalities that people suffer from. Maybe the perception from the justice system needs to be altered. In the end, reincarceration rates show that the system does not work. Many people cannot be considered "normal" and it should not be expected anymore.
The prison system should not have its main focus be finding who is to blame. It should be helping those in need while trying to keep everyone safe. I believe that what is important is people's safety but also taking preventative actions within family, education, and workplace, etc., on mental/emotional health. Children get check ups at the beginning of every school year to get all sorts of medical exams but mental health is not part of it and is clearly a neglected area. The brain is a muscle that can be exercised and treated, as a nation, we should pay more attention to that muscle from birth.
Primary Source: Hagerty, Barbara Bradley. “Inside A Psychopath's Brain: The Sentencing Debate.” NPR, NPR, 30 June 2010, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128116806.
Secondary Source: Merrefield, Clark. “Should Juvenile Criminals Be Sentenced Like Adults?” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 26 Nov. 2012, www.thedailybeast.com/should-juvenile-criminals-be-sentenced-like-adults.
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