Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: Shirking Responsibility for Criminal Behavior

In Virginia, another drunk teenage driver has killed herself and her three friends who were riding in the car with her. One of the fathers of the passengers made this statement: "A drunk driver killed my kid." I beg to differ, sir: a drunk driver and her drunk enabling passengers colluded to kill themselves. You can't blame the driver without blaming the passengers. There was an open gallon of vodka in the car, half of it gone, when the car crashed. This isn't like a drunk pilot killing his unsuspecting passengers. Every one of those kids knew the driver was drinking and likely passed the bottle to her while she was behind the wheel. In doing so, everyone shares the blame for the car crashing and the resulting deaths.

A while back, a Minnesota girl survived such a crash that killed her friends. Because she was the driver, she ended up getting charged. She admitted she was wrong but she stated that all of her friends knew darned well what they were getting into when they got into the vehicle with her and passed the bottle around. She got a lot of angry feedback from that statement; folks thought she was blaming the victims of her mistake. But, I agree with the girl. She was wrong but her friends were just as wrong.

In another horrifying Virginia story, a man left a cache of weapons around his mentally deranged son, took him to practice shooting at the gun range and gave him drugs. The son ended up taking his daddy's guns and murdering two police officers. The father ended up getting a few years for aiding and abetting, a sentence I thought was far too low, although I was happy to see him get nailed for something (unlike most of the parents of school shooters who get off scott free after their children take their father's or grandfather's guns and mow down their classmates).

Nancy Grace got sued by the family of Melinda Duckett for grilling her over the disappearance of her son. After Melinda made herself look really guilty with her poor answers, she went home and blew herself away with Granddaddy's shotgun. Her grandfather, however, instead of blaming himself for leaving his weapon around for his mentally unstable granddaughter to do herself in with, attacks Nancy for making his squirrelly grand kid feel bad about herself.

And let's not forget Madeleine. Her parents left her and their two little babies alone in a strange hotel room while they went off drinking. Now, they have collected two million dollars from caring people to find her. While I understand they are hurting, many parents have had their kids kidnapped through no fault of their own. Madeleine's parents should have been charged with child neglect.

What do all these cases have in common? Folks taking no responsibility for their behavior and blaming someone else for the results of it.

I would like to see people speak out and say, well, you brought it on yourselves and you need to either live with that fact or go to jail for your involvement with the crime. Let's stop making excuses for these individuals and expect and demand that they accept responsibility for their actions.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown