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The Bad Seed,
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Duane
IIRC there is NO evidence that psychopathy (which is what we're talking about in the case of this girl) is hereditary. Genetic, maybe - the jury is out on that, and research is ongoing - but a psychopath can "pop up", recognizable from birth, in an otherwise completely normal family with upbringing virtually identical to its siblings. There's no correlation with criminality in earlier generations, though.
There's some evidence of a biological origin for true psychopathy (including the preceding), but it's hotly debated. The "Psychology Community" does NOT want to admit that that's even possible, because it implies that psychology cannot "cure" psychopaths (which does in fact appear to be the case) - something that's absolutely anaethema to The Medical Community, since it in turn implies that once identified, they need to be... um... Er... uh... "Removed From Society". (This applies, in a lesser degree, to any possible *hereditary* origin for criminality in general, as well... if it's deemed to be "not the criminal's fault", which the sikes would *love* to claim (they think), that also means that the "Sufferer" is *doomed* to being at least susceptible to criminal behavior, and believe me, if "Society" latches on to *that* idea, sooner or later anybody with the "wrong" DNA profile is going to be stigmatized for *life*, from *birth* (something the sikes, and the "Gay" community, and a whole lot of others haven't really thought through, and may find out the hard way, after it's far too late to do anything about it...).
Now, as far as criminality in general goes... that's a much more nebulous and uncertain question... criminality in general, while it encompasses psychopathy, certainly isn't limited to that in origin, and is *a lot* more influenced by "nurture" than "nature". You take any child and beat and abuse him or her and give them amphetamines and alcohol, sometimes even before their teens, and you can be just about guaranteed of creating a criminal.
(sorry for the long and digressive answer, but you've gotten onto one of my favorite subjects...)
There's some evidence of a biological origin for true psychopathy (including the preceding), but it's hotly debated. The "Psychology Community" does NOT want to admit that that's even possible, because it implies that psychology cannot "cure" psychopaths (which does in fact appear to be the case) - something that's absolutely anaethema to The Medical Community, since it in turn implies that once identified, they need to be... um... Er... uh... "Removed From Society". (This applies, in a lesser degree, to any possible *hereditary* origin for criminality in general, as well... if it's deemed to be "not the criminal's fault", which the sikes would *love* to claim (they think), that also means that the "Sufferer" is *doomed* to being at least susceptible to criminal behavior, and believe me, if "Society" latches on to *that* idea, sooner or later anybody with the "wrong" DNA profile is going to be stigmatized for *life*, from *birth* (something the sikes, and the "Gay" community, and a whole lot of others haven't really thought through, and may find out the hard way, after it's far too late to do anything about it...).
Now, as far as criminality in general goes... that's a much more nebulous and uncertain question... criminality in general, while it encompasses psychopathy, certainly isn't limited to that in origin, and is *a lot* more influenced by "nurture" than "nature". You take any child and beat and abuse him or her and give them amphetamines and alcohol, sometimes even before their teens, and you can be just about guaranteed of creating a criminal.
(sorry for the long and digressive answer, but you've gotten onto one of my favorite subjects...)
Cheryl
Some think criminal tendencies can be biological--others thing environment plays a big role. Here's one article on the subject. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/08/us...
Angie
Maybe your mother just hated her second husband... There are crimes of passion versus cold blooded murders for greed
Janice Robinson
Well, I believe in nature over nurture, so if I were you, I'd worry. One big reason I'd never adopt. You don't know what kind of people that child came from.
Forked Radish
As for the first question, I'm not a bookie and don't lay odds. The second question is based on the presumption of determinism i.e. the idea that all things are determined by something else. I call it the deterministic illusion and it's resposible for the majority of error in human thought. Examples are the big bang, genetics, evolution, creationism, psychology etc. These ideas are just projections of the deterministic illusion viz. the deterministic solution. Such homicidal tendencies as your mother and the child in the book exhibited don't need be determined by anything, as they are the result of non-outcome driven processes. That is, to say, they are neither teleologic nor teleonomic in nature and therefore are pure "art" and don't originate anywhere except in the mind itself. The primary error is caused by the obsolete Newtonian legacy which presumes a "hardware type", mechanistic universe where things are deterministic, non-intrinsic and random when in fact this is a "software type" digital universe where things are non-deterministic, intrinsic and arbitrary.
Karen
I wish I knew since no one answered the question. Want to read it but have not yet.
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