Child killers are a very prominent example of the “Nurture vs. Nature” debate, in which no one has quite found the correct answer. In one of the articles it refers to these children as “freaks of nature” or “products of the devil”, implying that they were just born evil. In the other article, the author states that it’s the fact that the killers in the Columbine massacre survived an abortion. The author claims that all of the warning signs for the suicide were common likes between all abortion survivors. Both articles were interesting; however, neither brought society any closer to answering this debate.
Instead of assuming the child is a “bad seed” society needs to look at them as a human being and acknowledge the fact that they
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The play The Bad Seed is the story of a murderous little girl named Rhoda, who kills a boy over a penmanship metal and the Janitor at her apartment home as he discovered that she killed the little boy. There are plenty of other stories related this; movies such as, The Omen, The Orphan, and Children of the Corn, were so successful due to the fact that they challenged the modern belief that children were born innocent and pure.
The topic is definitely an interesting one, and like a finely aged wine, it’s an acquired taste. I chose to narrow my topic down into child killers, considering that is the field of study I’m interested in, and eventually plan on forming a career out of it. The more I read about the ‘freaks of nature’, the more I was fascinated by it, not only by the fact that a child had the capability to murder someone, but by the fact that they were completely shunned by adults and few took the time to try and understand why. After reading the peer reviewed article about Columbine and Abortion Survivors, I can honestly say that I don’t understand the relationship between the feelings the author is stating and surviving an abortion. I firmly believe that society needs to examine each case to find the ‘why’, just as it would for adult cases, and not just assume that the child is a ‘product of the devil’, who knows what
The life of Perry Smith was saturated with abuse, turmoil, and a lack of compassion. His father often took advantage of their mother and subjected her to violent outbursts of yelling and physical as well as verbal assault. Seeing this behavior every day, Smith recognized it as a normal way of life and developed a hardened attitude towards violence. These experiences consumed him in a deeply troubled psychological state of mind affecting his social behavior, essentially making him a recluse to the outside world. He had a hard time developing close relationships with other people, causing him to lack common empathy and making it easier for him to blindly rampage in a murderous spree. Seeing so much violence as a child, he lost a value for human life. This simple fact is a direct outcome of his upbringing which ultimately led to his decision to slaughter the Clutter family on that fateful night in Kansas. As an opposite viewpoint, nature would correspond to a psychological disorder or mental illness. In some cases, nature can be the driving force behind a person’s lack of control over their actions. However, these factors are not often present in people who are convicted of murder. It is more reasonable that the experiences a person undergoes throughout their lifetime shapes their personality and behavior while
On October 9, 1968, a set of twins were born, but separated at birth and ultimately, put up for adoption. The decision to separate the twins came from the adoption agency who wanted to conduct a nature versus nurture experiment; however, the experiment was conducted in secret. However, for unknown reasons, the experiment never developed to fruition. Unaware the child they adopted was a twin; both sets of parents raised a singular child. Thirty-five years later, one twin began a search for her biological mother through the adoption agency, only to find out that she was born a twin. Upon learning her identity, she reached out to her twin and they began the journey of getting to know one another by comparing characteristics that appeared similar such as temperament and mannerism. They even discovered that they both held positions as a film critic and enjoyed almost identical movies.
The mother of the child is portrayed as a normal woman with no mental health problem. This would lead the viewer to believe that the child’s tendency to murder developed in her short life span by her sense of entitlement and lack of punishment. She had no sense of consequences and we are led to believe she is like this due to her environment (which is partly the case).
In America abortion is one of the most heavily debated topics in recent years. Pro-life or pro-choice? Many people believe it is immoral and even consider abortion to be murder. The definition of abortion states “The termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to being capable of normal growth” Did you know that 1 in 3 women in the U.S. will have an abortion in their lifetime? (Baker, Aspen. "A Better Way to Talk about Abortion." Aspen Baker:. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2016.) When first researching this topic I wondered, “What’s the big deal? Why would it matter if someone who was never even born, died?” And I realized that babies that would have been born due to abortion,
The case of whether serial killers are born with the lust to kill or if they are truly victims of their environment has been a hot debated question by both psychologists and the FBI today. A serial killer is traditionally defined as one that kills 3 or more people at different times with “cooling off” periods in between kills. Both psychological abuse as a child and psychological disorders are to blame for the making of a killer. The nature vs. nurture debate is best applied to the mysterious behaviors and cases of serial killers and their upbringing and environment. Nature is the genetic and biological connections a person has, personality traits, and how genetic make-up all relates to a killer. Nurture is examining the upbringing and environment that a person is around that affects what a person becomes. In some cases however, the effects of only upbringing or only biological problems were the reasons certain serial killers committed crimes. Although there is no definitive answer to what plays the bigger role: nature or nurture, they both are contributing factors that make a serial killer. These deviants of society are afflicted with problems in either their upbringing or have psychological disorders, and are able to blend into our everyday lives with no apparent differences, yet they wreck havoc through their unremorseful killings.
When the smoke clears and the dust settles, only the women who experienced such events in their lives should speak on the psychological effects of abortions. However, I do know, as the poet so puts it (Banh, 2014) that, I knew them all though faintly, I loved them all and I will always have an open space in my heart for all my un-born children.
Talking about abortion brings out an emotional response in many women. This is because having an abortion takes a massive emotional toll on some women. As Nanyjo Mann said, three weeks after having an abortion, “I became preoccupied with the thoughts of death. I fantasized about how I would die. My baby struggled for two hours” (Reardon, 1987, p. xviii). In the forward of the book “Aborted Women, Silent No More” Nanyjo, a women telling her story of abortion, goes on to tell about feeling unstable with herself after having an abortion. She wanted to prove to herself that destroying others didn’t hurt, but it does (Reardon, 1987, p. xix-xx). Continuing in reading Nanyjo’s story, she tells all of the effects and feelings she went through after having an abortion including stress, depression and low self esteem. Any girl under the age of 18 would have an even harder time dealing with this type of stress. Teenagers are already seeking their identity and worry about their grades, looks, and peer acceptance. Going through the post abortion stress all by themselves would be overwhelming and potentially put them at risk for mental breakdown.
To begin with, numerous reasons for why a child acts in the manner he exhibits and why he continues to exert such dangerous and even fatal schemes. Recent research shows that factors ranging from inherited personality traits to chemical imbalances and damages suffered in the womb can increase the odds that a child will become violent (Johnson 234). Experts argue that no one is predestined to a life of crime. They believe that influences such as repeated abuse, extreme neglect, poverty, media violence, and easy access to guns play the major role in molding children into criminals. The father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer wonders, "If potential for evil is in the blood that some of us pass on to our children" (Seifert 23).
Serial killers have many frightening facets. The most frightening thing about them is that experts still do not know what makes a human become a serial killer. Many experts believe serial killers become what they are because they have a genetic disposition or brain abnormality while other experts believe that a serial killer is created by childhood abuse; and some other experts believe that it is a combination of both brain abnormalities and abusive childhood experiences that creates a serial killer. A murderer is considered a serial killer when they “murder three or more persons in at least three separate events with a “cooling off period” between kills” (Mitchell and Aamodt 40). When defining a serial killer, their background, genes, and brain are not mentioned; perhaps one day those aspects of the serial killer can be included.
The birth of a child is usually a wonderful and priceless occasion. However, on June 5, 2015, an eleven-year-old girl gave birth to a newborn girl. Approximately a year before she gave birth, her 40-year-old father repeatedly sexually assaulted her. In this case, the unprepared eleven-year-old child decided to have the baby. This is a prime example that illustrates that the right to abortion should always be vested in the woman.
One of the most controversial issues in society today is abortion, and as of now, it is morally acceptable because of Roe vs Wade. However, when a study conducted by Minnesota reveals that women who have had an abortion have 10 times the risk of committing suicide than women who have not had an abortion, it’s time to seriously think about whether or not abortion should be acknowledged as morally right. Considered by some to be a form of murder, anti-abortion laws should apply to all women in order to prevent any emotional mishaps of the abortion victim and to save the lives of the innocent human beings not yet born. Pro-Choice advocates believe that abortion should be legalized because they feel it is necessary to empower women with choice. They have strong opinions that women are not subordinate, so they ought to be allowed to make moral decisions and should not be forced to have a child, but why should the child have to suffer for the wrongdoings of his mother?
Imagine…the birth of a human being into the world. 9 months of endless anticipation leading to someone’s first chance at seeing the world for the first time. While some enjoy the result of a pregnancy, leading to a new human being entering life, some are not so fond, or just can’t be in such a situation. Abortion is the supposed “cure” to this problem and is, for the most part, done safely. However, one of the factors stopping someone from committing an abortion is the consideration of moral status on the child.
It is saddening to see humans of the female gender, who find themselves in a situation that requires introducing a new life into the world; to abort such a precious gift. Many may wonder how these poor, innocent, unborn children are then discarded after the abortion procedure. One cannot fathom the reason of these gruesome murders that happens within these medical facilities. Babies are disposed in the red waste bins of these facilities, and later incinerated. Some may either be flushed down garbage disposals or even be sold off for research purposes. The issue of abortion is not just a social one, but also a human rights issue among the unborn children. I believe if the human rights of these children has been violated, then all other rights of humans are certainly meaningless.
In the twenty first century there have been many cases of kids committing murder, whether it is the relationships they hold at home or the video games they play, the environment a child is exposed to will affect their developmental process. Children are supposed to be innocent and pure without the desire to kill, yet in the last 50 years official statistics on Listverse.com suggest that over 1,100 kids have been found guilty of murder in England alone. The average age of a child that kills is just about fourteen years old. These kids are usually brought up in an environment that does not teach them right from wrong.
Undoubtedly, humans are unique and intricate creatures and their development is a complex process. It is this process that leads people to question, is a child’s development influenced by genetics or their environment? This long debate has been at the forefront of psychology for countless decades now and is better known as “Nature versus Nurture”. The continuous controversy over whether or not children develop their psychological attributes based on genetics (nature) or the way in which they have been raised (nurture) has occupied the minds of psychologists for years. Through thorough reading of experiments, studies, and discussions however, it is easy to be convinced that nurture does play a far more important in the development of a human than nature.