If Serial Killers truly are "born" to kill, should they not be found not-guilty?

[Jersovic]

I just finished watching this documentary on Serial Killers, and how they typically had little-to-no frontal lobe activity and a completely distorted Amygdala. If this is the case, should they not be exempt from Criminal Charges for the same reason a mentally handicapped person generally is? This makes me feel like someone who was born with a disability is being persecuted

What do you guys think?

[Powerogue]

Disability or not, they still killed people.

how "exempt" from criminal charges are the handicapped people? Just because there's clearly something wrong with them doesn't make them less of a murderer or any less a threat to society (perhaps moreso!)

[Zyzzyx]

I think that'd be stupid. Mentally handicapped people aren't exempt from the law either, they still get locked the hell up. Just in a different place.

[Deleted]

It does not matter if they had little say in the matter, they still need dealing with. Is the other alternative letting them go to commit another crime? If somebody is mentally ill, they should get treatment.

[Reg]

A lot of serial killers end up in the mental wards of jails. I know a guy who used to play basketball with David Berkowitz.

[Very Tired]

The cause of a crime may differ from person to person but the end result should always be the same. They broke the law and should be separated from society for the safety of others.

[strossus001]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

[Skelington]

Well, they should get mental help should they commit murder with a 'handicap' or whathaveyou. Exempting them from charges would be too exploitable.

[Deleted]

Well not all serial killers are born with this desire.Most of the time it depends on the environment they grew up in.Just look at Ed Gein.

[Dazzy]

There are also hundreds of thousand if not millions of people that are born with the EXACT same conditions that go on to lead normal lives and never kill a single living thing.

[anveena]

They would still need to be separated from the rest of the public, because they're clearly a threat to them.

[Fraza]

The criminal justice system serves (or should serve) 2 purposes: rehabilitation and isolation. If it was about righteousness, you could make that point. They still need to be treated and isolated though, they are a danger to everyone else.

[Lore Lord]

To a degree this is what the insanity plea is for, to avoid punishing people who legitimately can't tell the difference from right and wrong. But even then, there's not that huge a difference in being locked in a mental institution for life and being locked in prison for life. Even assuming they are completely innocent they should still be sent to prison since prison has three functions, the first of which is punishment which can be thrown out if you argue they didn't do anything wrong, the second is as a deterrent which works better if people think there isn't a loophole to get out of it, and the third is the most important, which is to protect society from dangerous individuals which implies as much as ever to the criminally insane.

[Silmariella]

Just because they found a correlation it doesn't make them "handicapped". A group of scientists in Germany ran a study to compare frequency of births and quantity of storks in a number of cities across Germany. And they found that cities with more storks on average had more newborn. Correlations may indicate a genuine connection, but they may also be purely coincidental. And by the way, how big a sample did the people who were investigating brain activity have anyway? Even if murderers do have impaired brain physiology in such manner, chances are there's a lot more people with the same pathology who don't turn homicidal.

[Deleted]

I think that'd be stupid. Mentally handicapped people aren't exempt from the law either, they still get locked the hell up. Just in a different place.

This.. Actually pleading insanity can be worse than jail in some places.. Here the maximum sentence for murder is 12 years prison, but if they put you in a mental institution they can keep you for life if they don't think you are fit to leave

[Deleted]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

Tsk, tsk.

They are not "born" to kill, genetic factors are minimal.

It's a matter of upbringing. The environmental conditions one is raised in. Brain development etc.

I, for one, would love to see modern society move in a direction that realises its an unhealthy environment that creates maniacs, not maniacs that create an unhealthy environment. Our efforts would yield a far greater benefit if we focused on creating better environments and education systems suitable for human flourishing. It seems as though wanting revenge and retribution is an attitude that dies hard. The general populations understanding is stuck in the past. Although, it's only a matter of time that collective understandings will catch up with our most up to date understandings; I hope.

[Brett Skullcrack]

I just finished watching this documentary on Serial Killers, and how they typically had little-to-no frontal lobe activity and a completely distorted Amygdala. If this is the case, should they not be exempt from Criminal Charges for the same reason a mentally handicapped person generally is?

No. The fact that you are a serial killer (i.e., kill many people) should obviously not exempt you from criminal charges. The fact that you have a mental disorder causing you to kill might, but then said persons should be held indefinitely in whatever facilities necessary so they do not pose a risk to the society.

[Gandrake]

They would still need to be separated from the rest of the public, because they're clearly a threat to them.

Sometimes you really have to wonder.

If I murdered my sister's worthless boyfriend, scraped his face off with a spoon and fed it to a dog, who would care? who would be up in arms about it? I would probably receive much more praise than hatred.

I know referencing shows like Dexter is like asking to get reamed, precisely because it is just a TV show... But some people just don't deserve to live.

[-Zait-]

No. Regardless of that fact they still killed so they should be found guilty and taken out of society.

[Deleted]

Sometimes you really have to wonder.

If I murdered my sister's worthless boyfriend, scraped his face off with a spoon and fed it to a dog, who would care? who would be up in arms about it? I would probably receive much more praise than hatred.

I know referencing shows like Dexter is like asking to get reamed, precisely because it is just a TV show... But some people just don't deserve to live.

And who are you to decide that? Such thoughts are often the sign of insanity. I once thought the same, until i saw war, then things changed for me.