Free Republic

I chose your article instead one of the other five or six listed on my search engine; because yours was the only one, which gave a complete list and description of each level of Dr. Stone's depravity scale. I think, like myself, that is what the readers, the ones who gave such unexpected responses, were after. Dr. Stone may have a website, but I haven't found it yet.

I believe that Dr. Stone's attempts to simplify the sentencing process for juries is misguided. I am not an attorney. I am a social worker. As a social worker; I have extensive experience working with convicted murders and other types of violent offenders.

Tonight, I am viewing a documentary on Dennis Rader, aka BTK. I believe that Dr. Stone would definitely place this individual very high on his scale, perhaps a 22. BTK tortured his victims for the purpose of sexual gratification. He is clearly a sociopath. His crimes are inexplicable. But can all of his acts be chalked up to free will, to evil? I'm sorry I think that's a cop out. Until we understand why individuals commit such inexplicable acts; we will be unable to stop them from reoccurring. What we do know is that those who do commit such acts are clearly not in their right minds. So, what makes Dr. Stone or anyone else think that harsh punishment will be an effective deterrent. Execution is supposed to be a deterrent, right? We don't execute out of a need for vengeance, do we? After all, acts of vengence are "evil", acts, aren't they?

Perhaps this is not the type of discussion you hoped to generate with your article. Perhaps you wanted to keep things strictly legal. In this case; I don't think that's possible.

11 August 2006

This scale raises a lot of questions for me. First, why is an individual, who kills out of a desperate need to end abuse(5) higher on the scale than a jealous lover (2)? It seems to me that a jealous lover would have far less justification to murder someone than an individual, who kills to end his or more likely her own suffering. He, or more like she, would certainly be in greater danger than a jealous lover, right? Or, does motive carry more weight on this scale than justification?

Secondly, why is a psychopathic individual (10+), one who has lost touch with reality, ranked higher on this scale, than a non-psychopathic individual (-8)? Shouldn't the individual, whose power of reasoning has been significantly diminished; bear greater consideration for clemency than one who knows what he/she is doing is wrong, but does it anyway?

I watched the program on TLC last night. After watching, I did not become any more supportive of the death penalty than I was before I viewed the program. I still don't believe that we have enough information about what causes sociopathic processes, both organically and environmentally, to justify the penalty of death. There are just too many factors. I am not saying that we should just let all these individuals roam free. But, I don't feel that killing them is the right idea either.

Why not make them submit to submit to a longitudinal research study. I realize that this may raise a few eyebrows ethically. However, where are those ethicists when the sates decides to execute these individuals.