Classifications and Motives of a Violent Criminal

Sheilah Sarmiento Com220 Sharon Dacotah November 22, 2008 Classifications and Motives of a Violent Criminal In today’s world there is violence lurking around every corner, on every channel and in many homes, but it is nothing new. In a final interview in 1989 with an infamous serial murderer, “There are those loose in [people’s] towns and communities, like me, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled, day in and day out, by violence in the media in its various forms,” (Dobson, 1995) was a partial comment made the day before execution as a warning of a destructive path available for any man, woman or child to find. Many say that a psychologically disturbed criminal is unaware and cannot be held accountable for their actions but what follows shows that may not be the case and there are many steps in achieving an answer when asking the question “why”. “Consider an insane person who perpetrates an assault because he has a delusion that his victim is trying to influence him with radio waves. If he is irresponsible it is because he doesn’t realize that his assault is wrong. Compare this with a man who is drunk and who knows he should not assault people but whom, in his drunken defiance, just doesn’t care.”(Nice, 1962 p.14 pp.3) To read this graph, for example: _Disorganized murderers had a 70% likeliness to isolate, conceal their victims and the crime scene after the murder._ The child molester might build a relationship with their victim before an assault takes place and uses manipulation, power and persuasion to keep the crime a secret (Nice, 1962). The question might arise at this point that if the crime should be kept a secret, does the offender understand the difference between right and wrong? In this author’s belief, a child molester of most instances falls into the category of will and character. Under other circumstances, a sexual predator would only fall into a classification of thought and feeling if the offender does not understand why it is a crime

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