Scale of evil?
This is kind of a fun article from NPR proposing a scale of evil for the murderous and violent among us. For whatever reason the scale goes from impulsive murderers in orange to psychopaths in dark menacing burnt umbre. As the article explains it:
Inspired by the structure of Dante's circles of hell, Stone has created his own 22-point "Gradations of Evil" scale, made up of murderers in the 20th century. "I thought it would be an interesting thing to do," he says.
His scale is loosely divided into three tiers. First are impulsive evil-doers: driven to a single act of murder in a moment of rage or jealousy. Next are people who lack extreme psychopathic features, but may be psychotic — that is, clinically delusional or out of touch with reality. Last are the profoundly psychopathic, or "those who possess superficial charm, glib speech, grandiosity, but most importantly cunning and manipulativeness," Stone says. "They have no remorse for what they've done to other people."
He provides an examples of an individuals that fit each category, e.g. Charles Manson for "Cold-blood spree" killer. The list of 22 individuals and their stories reads like a who's who of criminal horrors, but the most horrific thing to me is how he thinks the scale should be used: "Stone hopes the scale could someday be used in prosecutions." I hope not. I think we have enough pseudo science diagnostic criteria and fear-mongering in prosecutions without identifying an individual as a "Charles Manson" style cold-blooded spree killer, or a "Jeffrey Dahmer" style "psychopathic torture-murderer."
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This is kind of a fun article from NPR proposing a scale of evil for the murderous and violent among us. For whatever reason the scale goes from impulsive murderers in orange to psychopaths in dark menacing burnt umbre. As the article explains it:
Inspired by the structure of Dante's circles of hell, Stone has created his own 22-point "Gradations of Evil" scale, made up of murderers in the 20th century. "I thought it would be an interesting thing to do," he says.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lame justification.
I think the only useful thing to use in terms of prosecution and sentencing is whether or not the criminal is likely to repeat his crimes.
And because the scale follows a continuum of likelihood a killer will kill again, courts may be able to better categorize the risks posed by releasing a psychopath.
Sounds specious. I should like to see some studies confirming this.
"Evil" is not something to be judged like this man seems to want to do. It smacks of a melding of church and state.
Setting aside the fact that I do not believe the dichotomy of "good" and "evil", is evil to be judged by intent, thought processes, or behaviors? Why should lack of remorse automatically equal evil?
Conspicuously absent from Stone's scale are wartime evil-doers. "My scale is a scale for evil in peacetime," he says. That's because assessing wartime evil from a criminal-psychological standpoint is more complicated because of factors like culture, history and religion."
Bullshit. How convenient.
This guy totally stole this idea from Peter Pan's nastiness scale. You should sue, PP.
ReplyDeleteBoring. I expect better from NPR. Must've been a slow news day.
ReplyDeleteSo M.E. does have a sense of humour.
ReplyDelete