Learning To Accept Criminal Behavior
I’ve had some time to reflect on a few articles that I wrote last year regarding the mindset of criminals according to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. I’ve come to accept the fact that no matter how much therapy, resources, and empathy people get, there is going to be a percentage of the population who will engage in criminality.
PERSONALITY DISORDERS
There are several personality disorders that affect people. Unfortunately, some of these personality disorders involve criminality at times, such as narcissism. People with a narcissistic personality disorder take pleasure in dominating and controlling others which sometimes includes violence and coercion. Narcissists feel that they are superior to others and feel no need to change. This means that they will never learn how to be empathetic or care about the rights of others. These individuals never seek out therapy since they already feel perfect, and if they’re forced to, they only do so in a perfunctory way with no real change.
In summary, all of this means that there are some people who have personality disorders that devolve into criminality at times and therapy won’t help.
NOTHING WE CAN DO
After analyzing what Nietzsche had to say about the mindset of criminals, I’ve come to the conclusion that for some people criminality will always be a way of life. The criminal mindset goes all the way back to our earlier, less civilized, law of the jungle days.
This mindset of superiority and lack of empathy goes back hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, according to Nietzsche. I think the sooner we learn to accept that some people will always be criminals, the quicker we can move on in life instead of trying to fix them. This in no way supports, promotes, or justifies criminality.
Solutions:
Personally, we can limit our time with such individuals or go completely no-contact with them.
Societally, more laws or complete social ostracization may have to occur. Such individuals may just have to associate with each other and not be allowed to interact with the rest of polite society.
Notes:
Personality disorders - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1889). Twilight of the Idols, pgs. 77-78. Wordsworth Editions Limited.
If Darwin is to be believed (which I do), humans have evolved from animals.
Most of the time, in humans, the reptilian brain is at play.
Humans behave like animals: territorial, possessive, angry, and jealous.
The only difference is that animals kill for food; humans kill for pleasure.
Humans exhibit animalistic traits such as territoriality, possessiveness, anger, and jealousy. The primary difference is that while animals kill for food, humans sometimes kill for pleasure. Examples are hunting, taking a rifle, and shooting at innocents.
What we need is human consciousness.
We have forgotten that the first job of the justice system is to get criminals out of circulation to prevent further crimes and the victims and damage they create. In a wealthy society that may mean incarceration and some form of rehabilitation; they are elsewhere out of harm's way and perhaps we can turn them into productive members of society. Worth a go if you have the resources.
In a hard, poverty stricken frontier environment, you don't have that slack, so you hang them. We sometimes look at the wild west and wonder why they hanged people for stealing cows, but it was because it was all they had. And it worked.
We are seemingly wealthy, but that is changing. The punishments doled out to the antisocial (which is what crime ultimately is) will adapt to reflect this. The softly softly approach is coming to an end.