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WARNING: SENSITIVE/UPSETTING INFORMATION - please note that this post contain potentially upsetting details of harm to children, sexual assault and murder.
Child-killer Lucy Letby was convicted today of murdering 7 babies and attempting to murder 6 others. She will get a full life tariff with no chance of parole and will die in prison.
This got me thinking, are people "born" evil or do you think they are "created?"
My thoughts:
For 20+ years I've worked with serial killers, rapists, arsonists, molesters, armed robbers and cannibalistic types. I have met perhaps the worst types of people (outside of criminal behaviour) - psychopaths, narcissistic personalities, you name it. One thing that has always fascinated me is whether these people are "born" bad or whether they are "made" bad. I won't get into the whole philosophy of good versus bad as that is a whole other topic.
In Letby's case it sounds as though she came from a relatively "normal" background - albeit one where he father turned up to have a conflict with the hospital when she was first suspended from work. What drives someone who had no (obvious) traumas or abuse to end up killing so many children, apparently without remorse?
Evidence suggests that there is a minority of people who are born with damaged amygdala (the emotion control centre of the brain) and faulty pre-frontal cortex (impulse control/gratification related part of the brain). They did brain scans and found that these people have very narrow range of emotion (mainly anger) and literally cannot feel what other people feel. They can, however, mimic what other people feel - watching another person's responses and then copying those responses. If often feels shallow and false and can seem incongruent/odd when they respond in ways outside of what is socially acceptable. I suspect this is how she conned so many people into seeing her as normal.
There are also issues with these individuals around identification of consequences. They can logically see a consequence and yet when in the heat of the moment it is somehow disconnected from them as an individual. The "it can't happen to me" syndrome.
At the same time not everyone with these problems end up being serial killers. A fair number end up in prison though (70-80+% of the overall male prison population). This then points toward a narcissistic streak (I don't use that term lightly, it is overused in 99% of cases) - a genuine belief that she was above the law, that she could act with immunity from the consequences. The only time she showed any real emotion (other than the doctor she fantasised about) was when she was told she had a life tariff, though I suspect that was anger being presented as upset (e.g., "how dare they hold me to account!")
Something is, however, missing here and I am curious about the family dynamics. There has to be more to this lady than we know about and I would not be surprised if she has experienced terrible things, though that isn't to condone her behaviour. Nobody with any human empathy would do what she has done, so that in itself is a problem. That said, she knows the consequences of her actions and shouldn't be sent to a secure psychiatric unit, she must remain in prison.
So in short, my take is one of nature AND nurture. These types of people have a biological tendency toward offending and anti-social behaviours - having a missing or damaged part of the brain that regulates emotion and behaviour. And as many have this problem without serial killing, I suspect she has a fair amount of environmental baggage. Either way, I suspect she will try to escape the consequences if another inmate doesn't get there first.
Thoughts?
Child-killer Lucy Letby was convicted today of murdering 7 babies and attempting to murder 6 others. She will get a full life tariff with no chance of parole and will die in prison.
This got me thinking, are people "born" evil or do you think they are "created?"
My thoughts:
For 20+ years I've worked with serial killers, rapists, arsonists, molesters, armed robbers and cannibalistic types. I have met perhaps the worst types of people (outside of criminal behaviour) - psychopaths, narcissistic personalities, you name it. One thing that has always fascinated me is whether these people are "born" bad or whether they are "made" bad. I won't get into the whole philosophy of good versus bad as that is a whole other topic.
In Letby's case it sounds as though she came from a relatively "normal" background - albeit one where he father turned up to have a conflict with the hospital when she was first suspended from work. What drives someone who had no (obvious) traumas or abuse to end up killing so many children, apparently without remorse?
Evidence suggests that there is a minority of people who are born with damaged amygdala (the emotion control centre of the brain) and faulty pre-frontal cortex (impulse control/gratification related part of the brain). They did brain scans and found that these people have very narrow range of emotion (mainly anger) and literally cannot feel what other people feel. They can, however, mimic what other people feel - watching another person's responses and then copying those responses. If often feels shallow and false and can seem incongruent/odd when they respond in ways outside of what is socially acceptable. I suspect this is how she conned so many people into seeing her as normal.
There are also issues with these individuals around identification of consequences. They can logically see a consequence and yet when in the heat of the moment it is somehow disconnected from them as an individual. The "it can't happen to me" syndrome.
At the same time not everyone with these problems end up being serial killers. A fair number end up in prison though (70-80+% of the overall male prison population). This then points toward a narcissistic streak (I don't use that term lightly, it is overused in 99% of cases) - a genuine belief that she was above the law, that she could act with immunity from the consequences. The only time she showed any real emotion (other than the doctor she fantasised about) was when she was told she had a life tariff, though I suspect that was anger being presented as upset (e.g., "how dare they hold me to account!")
Something is, however, missing here and I am curious about the family dynamics. There has to be more to this lady than we know about and I would not be surprised if she has experienced terrible things, though that isn't to condone her behaviour. Nobody with any human empathy would do what she has done, so that in itself is a problem. That said, she knows the consequences of her actions and shouldn't be sent to a secure psychiatric unit, she must remain in prison.
So in short, my take is one of nature AND nurture. These types of people have a biological tendency toward offending and anti-social behaviours - having a missing or damaged part of the brain that regulates emotion and behaviour. And as many have this problem without serial killing, I suspect she has a fair amount of environmental baggage. Either way, I suspect she will try to escape the consequences if another inmate doesn't get there first.
Thoughts?