Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?

...display standard deviations as bar graphs, you could probably get through to the wall of ignorance...

Ah yes, all of us benighted ignorant conservative Christian rubes, who don't use Latin, or the jargon appropriate only to logic and statistics classes...

What could we possibly know about kids?

Much better to trust the NYTimes!

Also, the standard disciplinarian rules of a normal Christian household assume a child who is not already a nut.

How did the gospel deal with the situation of the boy who wandered among the gravestones cutting himself on sharp rocks and hurled himself in the fire? Did Jesus come along saying why didn’t you whip him when it counted? The demon is rebuked, it flees and the boy comes back... NORMAL.

Friend, I listed occult problems and even baptism above bad parenting in the list where you promptly responded with a put-down using Latin and jargon.

Indeed, it well could be a problem of demonic possession—or certainly demonic influence, which is why I brought it up. While insanity isn’t always caused by occult powers, occult powers do bring insanity.

It still sounds as if the parents are very inconsistent in their approach—and lack any standard for applying appropriate discipline for the child’s bad behavior. Reading Dobson’s “Dare to Discipline” is different than actually applying it.

Disciplining adults for irrational & bad (non-criminal) behavior isn’t appropriate—counseling—or exorcism....is. Disciplining your own kids though, appropriately, is commanded.

And yes, I do love and appreciate Jesus and His compassionate approach, to all of us. Why would you assume otherwise?

Ah yes, all of us benighted ignorant conservative Christian rubes, who don't use Latin, or the jargon appropriate only to logic and statistics classes... What could we possibly know about kids? Much better to trust the NYTimes!

Ok, I won't point out the Latin name for the argument above (although I can), as fallacious as it may be. However, it was a clinician who stated that the child was two standard deviations removed from normal on the CU chart, not the NYT. Attempting to attribute it to the NYT on a website where the publication is held in low regard, was a nice effort though. Unless of course it is your serious contention that the NYT has incorrectly represented the diagnostician in question?

Actually your post represents why I do so hate these arguments on FR. They (the arguments) get more emotional as they go along, and don't pretend for a moment that your comments like "benighted ignorant conservative Christian rubes" are anything other than evocative.

I know this is a stretch for many, but it truly is possible to discuss something in depth, even in the presence of deep and passionate disagreement without getting defensive, sarcastic, dismissive or otherwise emotional.

Yes, giving the reporter the benefit of the doubt what I’m saying is that the parents and the “specialists” have been intervening in such a way as to make these kids worse off.

Punishment is ineffective in changing behavior. At the same time they’re literally training him to be worse through their dramatic actions. The therapists should be criminally liable as the literature on this is very clear.

Actually, given what I just wrote I’m even doubtful of the diagnosis. The whole thing is a tragedy and likely will be.

Wow, just found this article you posted and read it and read all the comments. It’s kind of timely for me as we have a child in the neighborhood that is/has been a problem. We were gone over the weekend, but when we got back to the neighborhood, my husband heard that one of the neighbor kids had gotten into trouble and that it was related to sex. Yesterday, I found out from the mom of one of the victims what it all involved and who was involved. The victims were the boy’s sister who is about 8 and this lady’s son who is only 5 years old. The boy that did it is almost a teen and has basically been a problem since he moved in at 4. His parents seem like decent people overall from the contact we have had with them, and the sister is a little sweetie, but the parents don’t know how to handle what seems to be an ever increasing bad situation. If you ask some of the neighbors, most would probably say that they could see something bad coming. Maybe not this type of thing, but something. A couple of years ago, he set a fire to his house and they had to move out for several months. Over the years, a lot of little destruction has happened. Stealing, deliberately breaking things, lying. The parents of this boy seems to be in denial or detached and each time something has happened over the years, they set him loose on the neighborhood again after a brief grounding. Grounding isn’t going to cut it this time. Anyway, the mother of the 5 year old rightfully reported it to the police and since the instigator is over 10, something is going to be done—I hope anyway. Personally, I would like to see him go away for good or at least a long time, but that is unlikely to happen. Like the mother of the 5 year old said, you have to wonder what has already been done to the little sister. I HOPE nothing else has happened to her, but he is unsupervised with her at various times. Anyway, I feel sadness for all parties involved.

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