“It’s always the quiet ones.”
The movie Minority Report makes for comparative commentary here. Originally published in the Gainesville Times, December 6, 1988, Prof. Taylor speaks to the notion of Pre-Crime and a police state where psychological profiling is a practice compelled on all citizens.
Oh, and please excuse the typos. I think Dad’s editor was having an off day. See? That’s an example of external locus. As much as I loathe them, I’ve caught typos and other grammatical errors in at least 90% of the professionally produced publications I’ve read. Mistakes happen. The best editors aren’t immune, and it makes me feel just a little better about myself when I, on such a rare occasion, happen to catch one. Tee hee!
A transcript and additional commentary follow the column.
TRANSCRIPT:
Can medical research solve mass murders?
Recently, you may have read a story in this paper about serial killers, which stated that killers were winning the battle with police despite technological advances. The article, slapping the police on the wrists, quoted University of Chicago psychiatrist Helen Morrison as stating, “Every one of these guys has been caught by accident . . . not by diligent police work.” I respectfully disagree with Dr. Morrison and the authors of these articles. Police files are packed with successful investigations and prosecutions of mass murderers. The problem with most homicide investigators is that failures show up more prominently than successful prosecutions.
If we stripped our society of its technical facade, we should expose a sen of humanity, confused and desperately seeking a new holy man who would exorcise demons from dangerous members of our society. You see, there is a deeply held belief that modern science will discover perpetrators of violence . . . before the act occurs.
Historically, we have always entrusted some members of our society with the task of exorcising evil from dangerous individuals. Not too long ago, it was the holy man, then the psychiatrist became the new holy man, fully expected to cleanse our deviant minds. When this failed and the tide of violence increased, our panic and despair pushed us toward our last line of defense — the police. But now, angry public, looking for someone or something to blame, pounces on the police with the gusto of a hound dog, without fully understanding why.
Since most mass murderers have no prior conviction for these crimes, and generally depart markedly from the clever, scheming individual who uses complex techniques to kill, let’s propose new and perhaps “radical” methods of assisting the police. Remember though, proposals for the prediction of violence, since they are linked with personal control, amount to medically legitimized preventive measures. For example, let’s start requiring/psychological testing for all children 6 to 8 years old and validate their mental health certificates prior to the beginning of minimum grade education. Let’s go even further and require screening of entire population for low violence thresholds.
Sure, I know. You’re beginning to get angry because I’m talking about you and your children . . . and I don’t blame you! To begin these procedures would move our society toward a therapeutic police state and no one in their right mind would encourage something of this nature . . . or would they?
Then how can we reasonably tell when our docile neighbor will suddenly start indiscriminately shooting into a crowd? Unfortunately, we can’t.
These dilemmas will not respond to quick and easy solutions, but this is certainly no reason, nor the time to blame our police agencies. And will medical research ever make a significant contribution to non-violent society? Yes, we sort out myth from fact, and understand the profound influence of fantasy, mythology and history on our attitude toward violence.
An 8-year-old girl, writing in one of her classes, wrote: One day a giant spider and a giant man destroyed the world. The police could not do anything. But one day a scientist did something and the spider and man were killed. Good! The girl just knows she will grow up to become a psychiatrist!
Alex Taylor’s column on history and criminology appears in The Times on Tuesdays.
————————-
I’m somehow reminded of Dr. Goines’ (Christopher Plummer) lamentation of psychiatry in the 1996 movie, 12 Monkeys. Kidding aside, it seems our society is always in danger of creeping away from freedom in the name of some emergency. How many television shows highlight psychological profiling at some point within their weekly plots?
