Thursday, August 23, 2007

Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: A Sow's Ear in Disguise

Bobby Cutts, the police officer who allegedly murdered his pregnant girlfriend, has now been charged with murder of the mom and baby. There is still much speculation as to what the motive was. Some think it was his rising debts and the fact this woman and child when born would add to them. Others think his motive was to eliminate a woman he was no longer interested in so he could spend more time with new females in his life. It seems that people feel more comfortable if there is a "reason" the character committed homicide. Unfortunately, this reason is what a defense attorney pushes to make the killer look more human, more understandable and forgivable. Even if the guy is a coldblooded serial killer, his bad childhood is the reason he ended up murdering people. If these desperate problems had not come into the killer's life, he wouldn't be a killer. In other words, he is not such a bad guy except for problems that pushed him over the edge.

While it may be true that an individual may not have sunk to the level of murder had not some issue upset him, we have to ask ourselves if it is ever an okay response to kill because one is having a bad hair day. Most of us go through life all the time getting pissed off and frustrated about what people and life has done to us. For all that I have been through, killing people to improve my circumstances, get rid of problems, or vent rage, has never occurred to me. Why is that? Could it be I think it is morally unacceptable?

Bobby Cutts apparently did not have this issue with right and wrong. And what kind of person doesn't have an issue with right and wrong? A psychopath. And what is the only thing that stops a psychopath who has no morals from committing crime? Getting lucky enough not to need to commit crime or being worried enough not to get caught.

Take this example: suppose a man decides his wife is becoming a problem to him. He plans to take her on a hike near some cliffs and push her over. But, before they leave for the weekend, the wife has a blood clot go to her brain and she dies. Woo hoo! The husband is happy he doesn't have to bother to kill her. Does this make him a nice man? Hardly. He simply got lucky. Or suppose a child molester wants to rape little girls but now everyone is watching him like a hawk. He doesn't do anything except fantasize. He also is hardly a nice man.

So, when someone does murder or rape or commit other heinous crimes, we ought to recognize that he is a dangerous animal. There is no excuse in the world that should make us view him in another way.

He is just a sow's ear we think might be a silk purse until we take the wrapping paper off.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

(photos courtesy of Yahoo News)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hear that special attention is given to trying to detect and screen out various incarnations of power-mad police recruits, and that the profession attracts an unusually high number of them. So this type of thing shouldn't come as a shock of disbelief to anyone with one iota of insight any more than they should be surprised when football players, boxers, and other high-violence-highly entitled sports figures reveal their domestic-violence and/or thuggery side (coughvickcough). But it seems, nonetheless, to confound an unduly high number of people.