Interesting article about causes of violence

[cjwils]

https://slate.com/technology/2018/04/anger-isnt-a-mental-illness-but-we-should-still-treat-it.html

The author contends that most mass killers, as well as many common murderers, are men with out of control rage. The present mental health system does not recognize such rage as a mental disease, so such men are not effectively treated by the mental health system. The author indicates that such rage often originates from stresses in childhood, and that future rage-based killers could be identified during childhood. The author recommends changes in the mental health system as well as changes in schools and law enforcement. Toward the end of the article, the author even recommends a new approach for the NRA. (I give her credit for not bashing the NRA.)

This article is gun related because the actions of such killers are used as the primary justification for most new proposals for gun control laws.

My question is: Would readers of this forum support changes that would identify potential killers when they are still children and attempt to change their direction before they become seriously violent? This could mean that an eight year old who kicks his dog or a fourteen year old who punches his first girl friend is redirected into special programs in school or elsewhere. This is potentially a very slippery slope, but would an effective program for reducing future violence be worth the risks?

 

[DeepSouth]

My question is: Would readers of this forum support changes that would identify potential killers when they are still children and attempt to change their direction before they become seriously violent?

Interesting read for sure, but to answer the question, it would depend entirely on what is meant by “changes” in the question and secondly what are those “changes.”

I take the changes to be legal, and therefore government enforced laws and/or regulations that would also make noncompliance criminal. I may be ok with that depending on said changes to the laws/regulations.

Of much more concern to me is what they will say, aka, what the changes are. I will not say that I will or want support something that is not yet thought out and written down. But I will say I think in this case it would be very very difficult to make legal standards that couldn’t be severely abused. I would go into the process extremely skeptical, at best.

 

[Mello]

The Slate article is mostly a "gloss' over the broad, complex, multi-faceted problem of societal misfits; some of whom are violent.

cjwils asks (in part) " . . . would an effective program for reducing future violence be worth the risks?"
I submit that before you ask that, you must ask what would be an "effective" program and who should administer it. That raises two (2) HUGE areas to explore.

(1) It seems that people fail to accept that life has risks. You can make decisions to limit risks. However, you can not eliminate all risks, all the time.

No matter what no one gets out of life . . . . alive.

(2) My experience over the last almost 7 decades has shown that all governments are destroyers (of rights, property and lives), government can not create anything except destruction.

Most people misunderstand how things work in the criminal justice system. This leads to unrealistic expectations. Such as, pass a law to fix "whatever".
Laws are designed so that law enforcement does not get involved until a crime has been committed.
Law enforcement is not about preventing crime. It is about discovering evidence of crime, probable cause and arresting someone who has committed a crime in the past.

 

[CapnMac]

That article is long on hypothesis, but short on practicality.

Ok, so, "schools" need to do more with troubled kids, even the ones that are offensive and not endearing.
There is an entire world of debates right there. From creating and enforcing answerable responsibility in school districts, to having incredibly flexible and capable mental health professionals at hand.

Which does not address how private and home schools are meant to fall into this line.

Or, how religious schools and families are going to react with teaching kids (rather universally in the article) yoga and going "Ohm."

Like many in the anger management field, they have dealt with the aberations for so long, they have lost sight of the fact that anger has a very real use and need in humans.

Also, as we have just seen, female vegans can be just as disturbed as angry white men.

 

[rust collector]

No group has a monopoly on violence. Anything that can be done to identify and effectively deal with the origin of the problem rather than the symptom seems like a move in the right direction.

 

[RPZ]

Right now the "fix" for too many in the target category is mind altering prescription drugs. The side effects which often seem to be exactly what the intention to prevent is. And the school system is administering these pills to ever younger children.

This is lunacy. We did not have this level of pill use prior to the 1980s. There is no justfication for it now.

Effectively targeting "problem" children to steer them in a different direction is fine, but it needs to be done with skilled, experienced counseling and follow-up as a foundation for other things. Exactly what those other things might be is a tough question. But a starter might be activity programs in sports, outdoor pursuits etc where they are out of the urban environment and doing things that are active, physically challenging - and away from their iPhones and other socially isolating gadgets. A much better way to form friendships and learn real social skills.

 

[Robert]

As interesting as this may be it appears to be outside the scope of THR.

Please indulge me, Robert.

My question is: Would readers of this forum support changes that would identify potential killers when they are still children and attempt to change their direction before they become seriously violent?

While the thread is closed, I just edited to add that there is NO known technology that can accomplish that! Not even close.

Glenn E. Meyer, PhD