Well, I don't consider my growing up to be some kind of terrible. Yes, bad things happened, but it was commonplace. Sometimes fights were massive, and different items were used in them - cathets, iron pipes, bearings. Someone was seriously injured. Those who have been dragged out by such a life have become bandits, many already killed. But they became evil, as a result of the lifestyle they chose. And that's another story.
Damn!!
I'll be honest, I'm left somewhat speechless.
There are degrees of evil, it's accepted philosophically (look up Stone's scale). Even in religion there's different levels between sinners, evil-doers and then on another level again there's Judas Iscariot and the Antichrist (in Christianity at least).
Take the Manson family for example, were the likes of Barbara Hoyt who was part of the cult but didn't participate in any murders as evil as the likes of Leslie Van Houten who did participate in murder and were they as evil as Manson himself?
"Forensic psychiatrist Michael
Stone proposed a
scale of evil that could be used to categorize criminals. So far, his
scale is
purely academic."
We can have a discussion as to how to react to different acts.
For example, simple high-school bullying can often be solved with a slap on the wrist. And this usually will be enough to teach the lesson of "what you did was bad, don't do it again!"
But in contrast, catching a serial killer would not be sorted with that same reaction. And the desire to cause either of those acts wouldn't necessarily stem from the same desire either. For instance, the high-schooler could simply be 'bored' or curious to see how much he could get away with. Often originating from a position of insecurity.
As for the serial killer could originate from a multitude of clinical problems or just from a position of uncontrolled anger.
But in either case, if you ask each victim if they "felt the love", I'm pretty sure their answers will be "he's an evil mofo!".
