Philosophical question on morals

[Country Living]

We had a heinous crime committed in our small town. An elderly widow was kidnapped, terrorized, and murdered by a young man who has shown absolutely no remorse. He confessed to that crime and at least one more.

For those of you embedded in the judicial system – is it possible for a person to be truly amoral? I realize it’s easy to blame drugs – but, what if it is something more insidious? Are some people simply born without a conscience?

If so, what possible deterrence can be put in place since nothing seems to scare them? This guy doesn’t care he’s facing the death penalty. He's not even upset he got caught. What is a society to do?

[aaron]

It's more a psychiatric question than a legal question - here's one possible answer, Antisocial Personality Disorder. Some people are sufficiently dangerous that they have no place in free society.

[deadlock]

Asperger's Disease may also be considered- http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/33/3/390

But the serial killers are more likely sociopaths.

Our society tends to maintain them in forensic prisons. There is no treatment and they are not candidates for rehabilitation.

[jk]

just for the fun of it, I looked up the definition of "sciopath". It's scary to say that it describes several people I know.

is it possible for a person to be truly amoral?

absolutely. As with all things, there is the "norm" but to even recognize the norm, there must be extremes to compare it against and to think that at some point there wouldn't be somebody that simply "didn't care" would be a bit naive.

There is no treatment and they are not candidates for rehabilitation.

I believe the prison sytems have basically accepted that there is typically no rehabilitation. Prison is meant only to be punishment.

If so, what possible deterrence can be put in place since nothing seems to scare them? This guy doesn’t care he’s facing the death penalty. He's not even upset he got caught. What is a society to do?

a deterrent can only be applies when one fears the punishment or at least dislikes it enough that it does in fact deter them from the improper action. When there is no deterrent available, all society can do is to remove that person from being in a position where they can freely act out as they chose, such as prison or the cemetary.

btw; there was a study done that showed it cost more to try and execute a person than it does to incarcerate them in the highest security prisons (in Texas) for 30 years.

[Betty3]

When I was underwriting life ins. applications, that would be classified by us using the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as aaron indicated - antisocial personality disorder. The person has a pattern of disregard for & violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence & continues into adulthood. It is also referred to as psychopathy, sociopathy, or dysocial personality disorder. Deceit & manipulation are central features of the disorder. They lack empathy & tend to be callous, cynical, & contemptuous of the feelings, rights, & suffering of others. There's more but it is like the person doesn't have a conscience- never shows remorse -- only shows indifference to having hurt, mistreated or even killed someone.

[deadlock]

When I was underwriting life ins. applications, that would be classified by us using the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as aaron indicated - antisocial personality disorder. The person has a pattern of disregard for & violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence & continues into adulthood. It is also referred to as psychopathy, sociopathy, or dysocial personality disorder. Deceit & manipulation are central features of the disorder. They lack empathy & tend to be callous, cynical, & contemptuous of the feelings, rights, & suffering of others. There's more but it is like the person doesn't have a conscience- never shows remorse -- only shows indifference to having hurt, mistreated or even killed someone.

As an underwriter for insurance companies, you assigned Axis II diagnoses?

[Betty3]

As an underwriter for insurance companies, you assigned Axis II diagnoses?

We would have "coded"/considered/classified it as 301.7 Antisocial Personality Disorder (under Axis II).
As training by our med. dir., we went through the whole DSM of Mental Disorders & discussed the disorders. We would have to based on person's hx decide where they would fall - how we would classify ("dx") them & then we would rate them on that dx/hx according to our underw. manual. However, most times an Attending Physician Statement would give us the code or dx & we would go with it & rate accordingly using our underw. manual. We didn't "technically" dx as a dr. would - it was sort of a "guideline" when we didn't get a code or dx from their dr. Mostly the problems we came across were things like anxiety, depression (more common "mental" disorders), we did get a dx from their dr. & we went right to underw. manual. You didn't ask for all that did you - didn't know how to explain w/o going into some detail. Needless to say the young man in Country Living's post would have been a decline not that an agt. would have sent an app. in on him.

[Betty3]

Not that it is a big deal but I spelled dyssocial incorrectly (dysocial) in my 1st post.

[Guilty Or Not Guilty]

dysocial

There's no need to fear, the grammar host is here. "Dyssocial".

[Guilty Or Not Guilty]

There's no need to fear, the grammar host is here. "Dyssocial".

Wouldn't it be stupid if someone put: There's no need to fear, the "grammer" host is "hear". The only time I can see someone placing something stupid like that is if he just got up in the morning.