Law /
Polish Police and Their Tactics [181]
Well, I trained as a Montessori teacher (ages 3-12 years) so I understand the stages of development and I worked with children in the inner city of Dublin for almost 20 years
I know that you were a teacher, but if I'm to be honest - it doesn't matter to me. Even if someone is a good teacher with years of experience, that doesn't make that person a good judge or an expert in child psychology. Also, I know what teachers can be like. They can have their issues and flaws too. Some of them shouldn't be teachers at all. Some are even sociopaths themselves. I had such a teacher at primary school. Only quite some years after I finished that school parents finally intervened and that teacher got fired. So she taught there for years even though already during my time she shouldn't have been let anywhere near children of any age, let alone such young kids.
That's why for me just the fact of being a teacher doesn't make anyone automatically an oracle. Teachers can be wrong too, including about issues concerning kids.
I think we should be first and foremost interested in the opinion of people working with those minors who broke the law - they know the system better than any of us, they know what works and what doesn't, what could be improved - they're the practitioners. And so if people working in the youth services and the justice system in the UK are urging the government to raise the minimum age a child can be convicted of a crime by at least two years from 10 to 12, then I'm guessing they have good reasons for that. They surely know about this more than random people on the internet.
I suppose they are the sociopaths.I came across at least three and when you look into their eyes, even when they're under the age of six, you can see that something is not right in there.
I know what you're talking about (although the kids I came across weren't as young as in your case).
Btw, according to dr. Scott Bonn, criminologist, psychopaths are born "that way", while sociopaths have been socialized into it.
he gave from a 'good' family. Nice parents, professional people, well educated etc. but in denial about his behaviour.
Well, you know, a family that may seem to be "good" to a teacher or the outside world in general may not be so "good" in private at home.
I once watched a very interesting documentary on TV about a research into what causes people to be psychopathic killers conducted by neuroscientist Jim Fallon. Here's an article about this research:
psychologytoday.com/us/blog/you-me-psychology/202011/are-serial-killers-born-or-made
For the purpose of this research he analysed scans of brains of different people, including convicted killers. He discovered that the brains of killers differ from the brains of other people.
For another project he conducted PET brain scans of ten members of his own family and himself. To his surprise it turned out that he has "the worst serial killer brain". What's more, his DNA test has shown that he had markers that were really high risk for violence. As he says:
"Now, it became a bit more serious, because I had both the brain pattern and the genetics that were very consistent with a really bad news killer, a psychopath really"
Many murders occurred in the history of his family, so probably that's where those "bad" genes came from.
In that TV documentary he said that when he told his family about his results they said they weren't terribly surprised, because there was something different about him. His son even told him that he was sometimes scared of him. However, that was it - he's a law-abiding, accomplished citizen, he didn't kill, rob, rape, etc. anyone.
So, if he was born a perfect
potential psychopathic murderer or a serial killer - why didn't he end up being one? He thinks it's due to his upbringing. His mother gave birth to him after four miscarriages and so he was a very wanted, loved and cherished child.
Judging by this research - it isn't enough to have "bad" brain and "bad" genes - there has to be something in the child's environment to "trigger" that psychopathic killer potential.
If that boy, at the age of ten, goes on to stab someone in the back 'for fun', what then?
How about reacting before a child like this actually stabs someone in the back? It looks like all the signs were there already. Did you or other teachers addressed this somehow (considering the parents were in denial)?
