What drives people to do evil, kill, rape, steal, destroy, be violent, and negative?

Question

What makes people go from crying little innocent babies, to becoming sociopathic, dangerous killers who do all of the things I mentioned above.

I want to know if it's society to blame, or if those pepole just snap from pressures, or just it's in their character.

We obviously are faced with many social ills in our society today and even worldwide, and we never know who we're really dealing with, as people can be hard to read or figure out.

So what is it that makes people do these things and turn evil?

Is it easier for men or women to be this way?

Are people born evil or good, or just like an empty slate?

Obviousyl as we have worldwide companies and our society is well established, lots of intellectual things are going on, which requires a functional mind, so it's dumb to say that evil is a very powerful and prevalent force in the world, but it's definitely there. It has it's role.

So what makes people like this, and how do we spot them out and deal with them?

Answer 1

i think that such behavior is the result of one, but more than likely a combination of factors a person posess. the human mind and heart emmontionally are very hard to disect. people in some simular circumstances react in different ways. in other words the combination of all of your answers is the answer. from genics, to morals, on down to plain old selfishness and jealousy. could cause these behaviors. persons having one, some, or all of these characteristic. its had to sometimes tell who these people are or exactly what they are capable of. not even ourselves! how far we can be pushed or to what extream we will react in any given sitution. would be hard for any of us to answer. to understand our own heart and mind would also help to answer this question. lets not be to judgemental. lets ask ourselves are any of us capable of these behaviors? and what makes us so sure. do we really know ourselves that well our subconcious? what had an affect on us in our lives that we don't think affected us at all, big or very small, that would drive us to good or bad extream behavior, or do we remember? i grant some people are born with genitic defects(bad seeds) an can't help it know matter how hard they try(criminal minds), but they don't know, nor do we usually, until something really bad has happened. as small children some of these type people could get on going treatment of some sort if discovered, as adults habilitation is there, but as adults we don't fill we need it until we find ourselves in simuliar situtions. so all of our answers combined is your answer. lets just ask ourselves, do i really know without a shadow of doubt, what i am capable of doing in what you may fill extream pressured situtions. not to exclude what you may consider to be life or death. if we as individuals keep ourselves in check. it may help limit these things from happening.

Answer 2

From a neuropsychological standpoint:

(No one just snaps, learning theory tells us that acquiring behaviours is more or less incremental, but there are so many models that refute this notion.)

The way their brains are wired, and because of the high degree of neural plasticity, it's a combination of genetic endowment and obviously the social environment. There are major gonadal tissue differentiations among the sexes that lead to phenotypic dimorphisms, even in the brain (the sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area being an example), gonadol steroids, the effects of testosterone say, and that's pretty common knowledge.

Forget about blank slate, the link between genetics and behaviour is well-established. From a philosophical standpoint, there's room for argument, if you're a dualist. Although no one can say for certain, and this is probably the main weakness of psychology, an over-reliance on models, which has not lead to a sufficient understanding of how the brain functions to form behaviour... But there's very little in terms of behaviour whose neural correlates cannot be observed. There's a significant amount of genetic, psychological research (J.S. Mogil of McGill) pointing to how genetics plays a substantial role in the formation of our behaviours. This is subject to a lot of philosophical debate of course. To put it simply, it's highly likely that people are born with a tendency to be "good" or "evil".
You spot them out with the help of psychology. You deal with them using psychology and good judgement. ;)

Answer 3

It is generally believed that psychopaths or sociopaths are born that way because they can come from families where there has been nothing that would cause the behaviour. There is certainly no cure as they have no conciences. There are more men who are psychopaths. There do seem to be people who are just "born bad"
There are however many who become bad as a result of the way they have been treated in life - they react to situations because of their upbringing. Those who have only been treated with hate and violence will learn to act the same way - and yet some great people have emerged from lives of hate and hostility - which contradicts this.
I am inclined to believe there are evil spirits which possess people in some way even though this is not scienfic.
Unfortunately it is not possible to "spot" the worst criminals as they are able to present themselves as normal in every day life.
The fundamental flaw in all of these people is selfishness.
They kill, rape, steal to please themselves in some way.

Answer 4

Little innocent babes could be born with a mental defect and they turn evil.

Events throughout someones life could turn their mind to evil.

Drugs have a lot to answer for, they play with the mind too much.

Sex drive is a culprit too. I also think showing too much of violence and sex on the media, which children can see can affect their vulnerable minds.

I don't think you can spot them. Some of them look so normal, I say normal because if they do the things they do, they are normal are they.

I do think some can show signs. Their eyes have a deep seated mad look. Their conversation may give a clue.

This subject is so general, it would take a full essay to discuss it.

Answer 5

Those that say, "It's always been like this" are plain wrong. I'm 57, and even looking at history across the board, it's hard to find a time when so much gratuitous anti-social behavior was found coupled with public indifference except in terms of each one's own safety. Only the most primitvely warlike cultures compare, in my opinion. Guns, SUV's driving like tanks, trash -- they're everywhere, it seems. Every day you think you've seen the limit of outrageous news, and the next day it's topped.

I have a personal theory that it is (at least in part) an outside agent -- specifically, aluminum, which might be the source. Alzheimer's Disease is attributed only to the old, but the only 100% accurate diagnosis is through autopsy where aluminum molecules are INVARIABLY found in the "hypothalmus" -- a tiny area of the brain which is believed to have a lot to do with identity and emotion.

My point is, I wonder -- if aluminum (wherever it comes from) has a similar effect on brain function as asbestos does on the lungs -- and what the effects would be if experienced by a young and otherwise healthy person as opposed to an old one. Instead of confusion and memory loss, we might instead see, as the "identity" breaks down, a 'symptom' of anti-social behavior and violence.

Perhaps, as for Herpes Simplex, we all have a store of built-in resistence to this that gets used up, or maybe there is a genetic pre-susceptibility, as there seems to be for cancer. Who knows? I just think it would be interesting to dissect the brain of a few young "gangstas" cadavers killed through violence (God knows there enough of them!), specifically lookiung to see if the aluminum molecules are present in the hypothalmus as they are in Alzheimer's suffererers.

Whether not this proves to point to a cause, the secongd oart of your question is still very hard to answer. Prison, as we know it in the United States, has certainly not worked. There's just not enough room or money to put even violent offenders away. Those we do incarcerate are released, (to quote a recent TV documentary) "meaner, stronger, and better connected" than when they went in -- the direct result of the tribal nature of prison life we have allowed to propogate.

Current "Conservative" ethic is to "protect" us right out of our constitutional freedoms with government spying of every variety, along with repression of free speech , the press and most of the rest of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution -- as well as wholesale (and often lawless) detention of foreigners we see as "a threat". All "for our own good", of course, and in the name of "Freedom". So the balance between liberty and public safety is hard to define, and just as hard to maintain with any honesty, whether it is at home or in our foreign policy.

Starring your question, which is a tough one.

Answer 6

Oh nonsense! The history of religion is full of war, murders rapes and all kinds of mayhem , all in the name of 'God'. The Old Testament is full of violence and at times revels in it, the Crusade are renowned for rape, plunder and bloodshed - even against fellow Christians when they attacked Byzantium. Even today, the Catholic Church works hard to cover up and deny the widespread practice of child abuse by priests, a well orchestrated campaign which was headed by Cardinal Ratzinger before he became Pope. Well documented in programs shown on Canadian and British TV but I don't knorw if they were shown in the US, though the Boston diocesan scandal got a lot of air time. TV evangelists have been caught out with 'moral' problems ...........the list goes on .

Answer 7

i dont think anyone is born evil or bad. i dont care what anyone says. i think its a combination of your enviroment, things you see and hear and things that happen to you personally. now i do believe that some people are born better able to bounce back from bad situations or enviroments. others it justs breaks them down little by little until their is nothing human left of them. they dont want to feel because every feeling is in some way a reminder of something that they didnt like about their lives. and that doesnt mean they had to be horribly abused or anything, just unhappy with a situation.

Answer 8

Bad inclinations of the heart causes a lot of evil things that humans do. Inherited sin from our foreparents Adam and Eve, and the influence of satan on the world.

It's sad to say that we can't spot these ones because a lot are highly intelligent and APPEAR to be normal.....
We have to put all things in the hands of the ONE who can rectify them.......GOD

Answer 9

Some people say video games, violence on TV and Music.

I think that's a bunch of non sense. People are just crazy. It's been that way for all of man kind.

Answer 10

Sounds like a deficient conscience.