Not to see evil,or recognize evil-------- IS EVIL

gouda

Jodi Arias = Evil

 

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On The Scale Of Evil, Where Do Murderers Rate?

Columbia University professor Michael Stone knows evil. He's a forensic psychologist — the type of expert that provides testimony on the mental state of accused murderers when a declaration of insanity can mean the difference between life and death row.

Inspired by the structure of Dante's circles of hell, Stone has created his own 22-point "Gradations of Evil" scale, made up of murderers in the 20th century. "I thought it would be an interesting thing to do," he says.

His scale is loosely divided into three tiers. First are impulsive evil-doers: driven to a single act of murder in a moment of rage or jealousy. Next are people who lack extreme psychopathic features, but may be psychotic — that is, clinically delusional or out of touch with reality. Last are the profoundly psychopathic, or "those who possess superficial charm, glib speech, grandiosity, but most importantly cunning and manipulativeness," Stone says. "They have no remorse for what they've done to other people."

Stone hopes the scale could someday be used in prosecutions. "The people at the very end of the scale have certain things about their childhood backgrounds that are different," he says, from those who appear earlier in the scale. And because the scale follows a continuum of likelihood a killer will kill again, courts may be able to better categorize the risks posed by releasing a psychopath.

Conspicuously absent from Stone's scale are wartime evil-doers. "My scale is a scale for evil in peacetime," he says. That's because assessing wartime evil from a criminal-psychological standpoint is more complicated because of factors like culture, history and religion."

And in war, there are often two sides. Take Hitler, Stone says. "He thought we were evil, we thought he was evil." But, he adds, "in that particular case, we were right."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129175964

Evil, can be a lot of things. Some forms are worse than others. I believe every one is only a heart beat away from killing someone, in the right circumstance. But once they are dead they are dead, then the pain is gone. Words can be one of the highest forms of evil I know of when they destroy some ones life and yet they have to live a life time, where they still have a physical life but their spirit is dead because of words some one has said to them. They then live all their life but are dead inside. I have seen a lot of kids who live in torment every day just because they have had things said to them that kills their heart but have to live with it sometimes for a lifetime. A gunshot to them would seem to be merciful. Seems that somewhere I read that life and death is in the power of the tongue. Unfortunately the trigger gets pulled way to easy.

Hank

I think I will see if I can give GSDTravels the type of answer she is looking for:

In the absence of any type of religious based morality or code, there are only consequences to our actions, or even inactions. The consequences that help us, would seem to be good, and the ones that hurt us, would be perceived to be evil. "Us", of course could be on a personal scale, or even meant in a more collective, and massive "us".

Bee - re. Stone:  "22 point"  ?  Jeez, had enough trouble
with 10 ...