Should sociopaths who did not form a conscience at the young age 2-2 1/2 be executed when they are caught?

Question

committing their first crime?

In the Stranger Beside Me, Ann Rule said that the current thinking is that a 2 to 2 and 1/2 year old child forms his conscience for life, but that Ted Bundy was too terrified (of his grandfather) to have the calm needed in order to develop a conscience and develop empathy for others.
It seems that once that window of opportunity for forming a social conscience closes after age 2 1/2, those kids who failed to form a conscience could become sociopathic or at least never have normal empathy for others. This is especially true if they continue to be abused for years, although Ted Bundy apparently wasn't abused after the age of 4.
So what is society to do with these people? There is no cure, apparently. The die has been cast, the conscience doesn't form, and these people are uncaring and many times dangerous.
What do we do to protect ourselves as a society from these adults? And what do we do to stop the child abuse of very young kids?

Answer 1

The problems with your premise are these: sociopaths aren't the only people who abuse kids. And even if you were able to defintively identify a "budding" sociopath, the law does not make provisions for preemptive punishment....that is, you can't (as a society) do anything with them until they've actually committted an offense. And barring an offense, you cannot target a segment of society (people demonstrating signs of this behavioral disorder) for execution because they don't meet your standards of acceptability. That would be akin to slating everyone with other mental/behavioral disorders for commitment to institutions. We cannot pre-punish our citizens. Abused people have a higher instance of becoming abusers themselves and for developing certain behavioral anomalies that perpetuate a cycle of violence. But they are generally not sociopathic (they're a completely different phenomenon and societal ill). There aren't easy answers to this dilemma (and you're right, there's no apparent cure for sociopathy). But I think unilateral executions miss the mark altogether. Still, I thank you for a compelling question.

Answer 2

I think you are referring to people that have been labelled with the term 'sociopathic' or perhaps 'anti-social personality disorder'. Yes, I agree that there are some people out there who are 'bad' and with no hope of being better. These people are narcissists, manipulative, uncaring, selfish, deluded and have no sense or right or wrong, or who simply don't care about doing wrong (anti-social) things. These people will steal, hurt, abuse and kill people without ever feeling bad. They will use people for their own betterment.

HOWEVER...

I think that people are not black and white. If someone committs a crime and a psychologist/psychiarist labels them as a 'sociopath' 'psychopath' or 'anti-social', then does that mean that they should be executed? I don't think it is that simple. What if the person is going through a difficult time...e.g. they are a drug addict, they are being abused...they are in serious debt? Perhaps their actions and personality type is a direct result of their current environment. Perhaps with the right rehabilitation (jail, councelling, falling in love, getting a job - whatever) they may have hope of living a full life with no harm to society at all.

I know someone that has been in trouble with the law. He was labelled a with 'narcissistic anti-social personality disorder'. This was because at the time he was a drug addict and he manipulated the psychologist to get out of rehab program. This man is actually highly intelligent, empathetic, caring, selfless and loving. Yes he did bad things in his past...but that was due to his environment and his upbringing. He has now found true love...with me....and he is a good man. Far better than many other 'totally normal' and 'straight' human beings.

This does not mean that there aren't people out there who are bad and with no hope of being good people. These people should be locked up, because society is at risk because of them. HOWEVER, I once again stress that people are not black-and-white. You cannot lock up all people with this personality disorder...in fact most people would be locked up...if that was the case...cos I think that all people are not 'perfect' human beings...we all have demons we battle and parts of our personality that are damaging and potentially harmful to others.

Answer 3

let em live. do they do THAT much harm anyway? cept for 1 or 2