Criminal Mind

[Suncoast Guy]

Criminal is not something that is taught is school. I do believe that people are born into family with criminal background, and that, in some case, does push onto the person in question. Also, person does learn how to be a criminal on the street. So... the question to this thread was... "Are people born with a criminal mind or do they learn to be a criminal?" I would say that it's a little bit of both. I'm not sure why anybody would really care, but nonetheless, there's my 2 cents.

[bs13690]

In the battle of nature vs. nurture, I would have to call it a draw. Some people are just plain evil and could be raised in a loving, stable environment yet still turn out to be a serial killer or criminal. On the other hand, some people may want to be good but literally not know how.

I think the reason we should care is to learn how to prevent criminal behavior. You can't do that without knowing the source.

[AksarbeN]

Originally Posted by Suncoast Guy

Criminal is not something that is taught is school. I do believe that people are born into family with criminal background, and that, in some case, does push onto the person in question. Also, person does learn how to be a criminal on the street. So... the question to this thread was... "Are people born with a criminal mind or do they learn to be a criminal?" I would say that it's a little bit of both. I'm not sure why anybody would really care, but nonetheless, there's my 2 cents.

Suncoast Guy,,,, if you had two center then Bernie Madoff would have already taken it. Seems he wasn't born into a criminal family yet he is probably the worst of the worst criminals in history for what he has done to the entire economy of his customers, friends, and the world. He had a "criminal mind" and I'm sure he didn't learn this from family values his parents taught, school, or his religious teachings.

At first I think of Bernie as an exception but when you look closer you see in our society many many more just like him. Remember all of the corporations that seemed to have failed because their leaders weren't doing their fiduciary responsibilities?

Interesting moral and ethical questions come from the OP and I don't think we can easily put answers into just two different buckets.

Who is worse? The guy in a dark alley with a ski-mask on and a gun wanting to commit a robbery, or someone like Bernie Madoff with a white collar, tie, and a pen in his hand?

Remember all the corporations in the last decade or so that operated in a criminal manner? The list starts with Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, SouthWest Savings and Loan (?) then came the Wall Street, AIG, more and more. Yet no one was (or very few if any) held accountable.

My guess, crime is a learned skill, and taught by our daily newspapers and reports of who how and when ~
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but without anyone going to jail.

[2goldens]

I believe we already have a thread on this topic on the GREAT DEBATES forum.

Thread closed