An offender's family being isolated because of their crimes?

rox5

I was just looking up about the Ohio kidnappings and reading about how Ariel Castro's family are recieving death threats and how their lives have taken a turn for the worse because of Ariel's crimes and it was the same with Ted Bundy's mother and her husband that they recieved death threats over the phone after it was revealed about what Ted did.

It just got me thinking, say for example if you just heard that your neighbour's son or daughter turned out to be responsible for the worst crimes ever, whether it was a string of murders, rapes, kidnappings, and so on.

Would you then turn against your neighbour and the rest of the family, even though they had nothing to do with the crimes and were very good people to begin with?

I mean I don't want to bring him up, but since he is the most high-profile criminal we have so far...we got all caught up in the hype of Larry Murphy and what he had done, that we forget how he has siblings, a mother, sons and an ex-wife who probably went through hell during that ordeal when he first got out.
I thought it was awful to be honest how his brother had to go on live television to say that his brother is not coming back to his house, and how he had to publicly disown him, just to get neighbours off his back and to stop cars slowing down when they drive past to have a nosey in.

People should have the cop on to realise that these criminals usually have family who are hurting over what they did and don't need anymore hassle from other people, since they have commited no crime themselves.

So what would you do, you would turn against your neighbour or support them?

SebBerkovich

It's obviously misplaced anger, people are upset and frustrated... the legal system is slow and may not always come to a satisfactory conclusion. So you can see how people might turn their frustrations to the perpetrators family.

Not sure if i'd be able to maintain the sense to know the anger is misplaced in that situation.

hsianloon

People just need a target to direct their negative emotions.

I Don't know how good parents and siblings he had , if they brought him up right or not but sometimes some kids are just wrong in the head despite how good a family they have.

Certainly, some people would go far enough to seek their own ideas of retribution by hurting his family. After all, hurting people we know and care about is an effective way of hurting us too.

Just don't know if he'd care though

mentalist101

I would only turn away from them if they continued to make excuses for the awful behaviour. The crime might not be their fault but their conduct afterwards definitely is.

Logical Fallacy

People are desperate to believe that they "know" their family members, so place a lot of anger on parents and siblings because they must have had knowledge of the crimes.

It makes them feel better.

ArnoldJRimmer

A pretty appalling crime took place in the midlands near where I lived on a Friday night about 15 years ago. My sister worked in a shop, where the mother of the perpetrator came in on the Sunday morning, and was upset that anyone could do such a thing. She didn't realise it was her own son that did it.

As much as I was outraged at what her son had done, I had huge sympathy for the mother, who was a decent and popular person around the town, and must have been absolutely devastated. Unfortunately it didn't stop people from pointing the finger at her for being a bad mother etc.

I personally think most families are already having an awful time coming to terms with it without random strangers giving abuse. Its understandable if its a victims family and friends, but not random strangers

caustic 1

Wouldn't shock me about my neighbours child, Damon was a saint compared to him, there is an evil streak there I swear it.

HondaSami

I would not turn against the family unless they were singing his/her innocence, it has to be difficult for family especially when it's high profile cases. It's not fair to judge people by the action of family members.

Chloe29

Yeah I think in a lot of the high profile cases like Castro and Larry Murphy, the family simply didn't know and it seems awful that people would target or isolate them. I'd like to say I'd support them as I would genuinely feel sorry for them and the loss they've gone through, they essentially lose their child in a way too-the child they thought they knew anyway. However in reality I'm not sure how I'd act if it was my neighbour. I certainly wouldn't say or do anything harmful but if I'm honest I don't think I'd go out of my way to support them either. I think I'd always have a small fear at the back of my head that they may have known. I know it's ignorant to generalise but I'm just being honest. I think I'd prefer to just stay out of it.