ABSTRACT
T he media overwhelm us daily with the horrible deeds of some people. A baby is found strangled and thrown into a garbage bin; a man confesses to having killed and dismembered a large number of young men; another individual goes on a killing spree in a small-town restaurant. A battered wife shoots her husband dead with his hunting rifle; a stepfather stabs his teenage stepdaughter to prevent her from testifying at his rape trial, at which he stands accused of having molested her since she was a little girl. There is no need to go on with examples; every newspaper in the country, every local television newscast, every radio news program includes a number of such events every day, and many, many more, so that a reader or viewer or listener some days feels overcome with revulsion at the world. Why do some people commit such atrocious acts? What should society do to keep such persons from doing further harm? What can be done to prevent such acts from ever happening?
