Given the right circumstances everybody is capable of murder.

gagiteebo · 03-04-2013 4:45pm #1

I watched a documentary last night about murderers and one particular psychologist ,who has worked with a lot of serial killers, believed that nobody is born evil. Nobody is predisposed to be capable of committing murder and given the right circumstances anybody could do it

I thought it was quite interesting. I can understand his point but not sure if I agree with it

What do you think?

Prodigious · 03-04-2013 4:47pm

Murder in the sense of cold blooded murder? I don't think so.

However in the case of self defence it's instinct, so yes.

NothingMan · 03-04-2013 4:49pm

When you say murder do you mean in cold blood? I think everyone would be capable of reacting to a situation eg. if a loved one was attacked/killed/sexually assaulted. But to execute say a stranger in cold blood I would say very few people would be capable of that but I would be inclined to lean more on the side that it's your upbringing that would shape the people that could.

I agree that no one is born evil. Saying that, I don't agree with sympathising with a criminal who had a bad child hood. No matter what you go through everyone is responsible for their actions at the end of the day.

Bobeagleburger · 03-04-2013 4:50pm

I'd murder a Guinness right now.

The Backwards Man · 03-04-2013 4:52pm

It doesn't even have to be the right circumstances, we are all capable of anything, it's just artificial societal and cultural barriers that hold us back.

Lollipops23 · 03-04-2013 4:52pm

I could certainly see myself doing something to defend myself- like if I was being attacked/raped I could certainly see myself stabbing or seriously assaulting the attacker.

Murder though? Premeditated? Nah, I'm too lazy and have seen far too many tv shows to think I could ever pull it off

SEPT 23 1989 · 03-04-2013 4:53pm

If someone kills your child it would be considered bad manners not to slaughter them

gagiteebo · 03-04-2013 4:54pm

Prodigious wrote: »

Murder in the sense of cold blooded murder? I don't think so.

However in the case of self defence it's instinct, so yes.

Not necessarily cold blooded murder but if you had to you would. This particular guy was talking more in terms of you get in a fight with your spouse for example and things get so out of hand that it happens. That normally you could never imagine doing it but when you factor in extreme anger, betrayal etc that you would be capable of it.

candy-gal1 · 03-04-2013 4:55pm

Yep Id definitly agree everyone is capable of murder, I mean tbh the only thing that has ever held me back from murdering/seriously maiming someone if I could sometimes would be the fact that I could end up fcuking up my whole life ending up in prison or being hunted down afterwards and moreso the karma aspect - yes I believe in karma, what goes around comes around etc

Everyone, imho, at some stage has killed or beat the crap out of someone in their mind at some stage or another, thats normal and a healthy way of dealing with some things tbh, its knowing where to draw the line thats important!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81quuALF5hs

Bipolar Joe · 03-04-2013 4:56pm

I reckon I'd be pretty great at premeditated murder. Sure, I'll do it. Who do you want me to kill again?

dodderangler · 03-04-2013 4:56pm

Everyone is capable of doing it but avoid it out of fear of the consequences

Sleepy · 03-04-2013 4:57pm

I've never felt the genuine desire to murder someone but tbh, I don't think I'd find it that difficult to pull a trigger. I can think of certain people I've never met (politicians, criminals, etc.) that I think I'd actually be smiling as I did it.

Maybe it's the atheist in me, or the utilitarian philosophy I'd tend towards that would identify some lives as have negative value but I genuinely believe human life is rather over-valued.

Of course, I've never even held a real gun, so things might pan out rather differently if I ever found myself in the position to end a life that I felt the world was better off without but honestly, I think the only thing that would stop me in most cases would be the unwillingness to pay the price of the long years in prison / leaving my kids without a father etc.

03-04-2013 4:58pm

Nah, just men.

Latchy · 03-04-2013 5:08pm

Lots of soldiers in war time and on all sides are guilty of murdering civilians as much as ' killing the enemy ' so yes , in certain circumstances and situations people can murder .

Revenge will always be at the back of some people minds and I think it would be a lot easier to spend a long time behind bars for murder if the person you murdered had commited something terrible like killing another family member ,especially a child .

Clandestine · 03-04-2013 5:28pm

Everyone is capable of course... but how would people react to their crime?
Most people would not be able to deal with the emotional baggage, or would slip up in this or their next crime and get caught, as is most often the case.

What about those people who don't emote, have a drive to kill, and possess excellent self control and planning? Thats the type of person you'd want to fear.

ScumLord · 03-04-2013 5:50pm

Every person is capable of killing, it's not that difficult to do if you're so inclined however what's more surprising is that humans don't default to killing other humans. Most animal don't kill other animals from their own species, in fact most animals rarely fight with the smaller one deciding it's not worth risking injury and fleeing.

But humans take this to another level and that's why we see so many US soldiers coming home with all sorts of psychological conditions. While we can train a person to pull the trigger without contemplating what he's doing, after the fact their brain goes into meltdown and it's very hard to recover from.

Dyr · 03-04-2013 5:56pm

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It doesn't even have to be the right circumstances, we are all capable of anything, it's just artificial societal and cultural barriers that hold us back.

Thing is that the barriers aren't artificial, and aren't really societal or cultural, you're talking about an evolutionary trait really

Given the right circumstances everybody is capable of murder.

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