Probably one of those kinds of people that gets off on putting fear in others. It's like a power trip. If he was a gamer, he'd be out griefing everyone and on hte top score list and s*** talking.
I think screws were loose and that's what made what would have been an asshole into a killer. Even 'clinical' psychopaths don't just go out and kill. There's got to be a big trigger or a build up.
The only way to stop this kind of thing is to spot it in childhood and engender in youth the kind of behavior we want them to have when they're adults. This will include a combination of counciling and medications and therapy and lifestyle changes. However, it's easy to overcontrol. We may not have hte knowledge yet to spot the right children and readjust them. If we push too hard it could cause more harm than good.
One way to go about finding them is to look for signs of psychopathy. The problem is the definition is fuzzy and there's no official clinical dimension for
psychopathy. Various researchers and studies have been done, though. Broadly, in the DSM, it's contained within the definition of Anti-social personality disorder.
The DSM IV-TR, published in 2000, puts the incidence of psychopathy at 3% in males and 1% in females. Generally, about ~1% of the general population is psychopathic. Some studies suggest a good proportion of the prisoner population is borderline. Some researchers say almost all prisoners are sociopathic.
What's psychopathy? It's the tendency of the person who has it to not feel empathy for others. It shares similarities with anti-social behavior. There're other characteristics. Wiki says this (
link):
Quote:
|
"Psychopathy (or sociopathy) is traditionally defined as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior."
|
Picking it apart, these're the traits:
1) Lack of fear
2) Poor impulse control
3) High self-confidence
4) Low remorse or shame if others are hurt by them
5) Cruel and/or exploitive of others
6) Forms shallow relationships
7) Dislikes authority
Having psychopathy would make it easier for someone to kill someone else, especially if they already suffer from other mental problems or disoders, like if they have extreme anxiety issues or are depressed.
Now, if all that fails, we may need to look closely at the brain. This is a long but worthwhile read:
Murderous Minds: Can We See the Mark of Cain?...
Here's something more updated:
www.huffingtonpost.com - Psychopaths' Brains Aren't Wired To Show Empathy, Study Finds ...
Here's a scientist who says his brain imaging indicated he's borderline psychopathic:
www.theguardian.com - How I discovered I have the brain of a psychopath...