And crime will go away?

I suggest that we euthenise capitalism instead.

If you’re an expert then you know that you are overselling the brain function story here. All you can confidently claim is that frontal lobe dysfunction can increase the probability of aggression (and then more for reactive rather than instrumental aggression).

I agree that there will always be some who can’t be rehabilitated, but how many? And how do we decide in individual cases? Any process of deciding is going to involve a consensus expert opinion that is going to look an awful lot like the parole process.

And yes, I am an expert in the field

These are the people who are known as ‘psychopaths’(I use this to refer to people who kill without remorse) and do not feel empathy or compassion… they are not INSANE- they are definitely mentally challenged though. Most have had terrible upbringings and a large number suffer from reduced frontal lobe activity (the part of the brain that moderates behaviour.) Some people have a genetic disposition towards sociopathy but can live mostly normal lives on the fringe of society. However some of these people experience specific life experiences that actually render them incapable of living in society. Thats why the number of people that cannot safely be rehabilitated is low.

INSANE usually means the person is incapacitated and doesn’t realise that what they are doing is wrong.

However, psychopaths actually do know the difference between right and wrong. The problem is, they are either emotionally incapable of caring whether they behave within societies expectations of normal behaviour or through some life experience have learned to gain pleasure or feelings of power from breaking the norms.

These people cannot be deprogrammed especially after a certain age. It is ludicrous to suggest that NZ’s most violent can be rehabilitated. Unfortunately, they are too far gone. They stll have a right to life and should be kept in prison for the rest of their natural lives- they should have access to psychiatrists to help where possible but the care they recieve will in no way make them safe to be released nto the community. It is too much of a risk.

There is far far more to this topic than just ‘good person, bad decision- they can be fixed’. Unfortunately the abnormal brain function present in psychopaths is not reversible. Bear in mind I am referring to the likes of Burton, Hotene, and Wiliam Bell.

Some younger less fucked up criminals can be rehabilitated but there is a small percentage who cannot.

I don’t know if they’re too low, but I think improving nutrition is very important to help brain development. Food vouchers could possibly assist. The portion of the benefit I was thinking of was the child benefit to ensure that it actually gets spent on child related items (food, clothing, medicine etc).

Vote mate your too funny to abstain.

National is poison. Reason and Ridicule is the antidote.

Peter Williams was righteous!

Vegetables still need to be cooked, but that aside are you acknowledging that WINZ payments are too low and need to be raised or do you envisage replacing a portion of benefit income with vouchers?

‘Cause that (the latter option) would be a bit like an electricity company installing pre-paid meters and then claiming to be ‘nice guys’ on the back of disconnection numbers dropping.

An ‘out of sight of mind’ mentality.

We could all practice to be better humans by trying to to see the humanity in those people we fear or intensely dislike the most.

So will you be inviting Burton to stay at your place for a few months while he gets back on his feet (foot) next time he is released. Actually he must be almost about to be released, he’s been locked up for more than 1% of his sentence.

Make them fruit & vegetable vouchers. I thought the voucher (or card for other child health, clothing essentials) would be only for WINZ beneficiaries. Perhaps you could fund cooking classes too?

Nutrition and food vouchers.

For calorie intake it appears that it is far cheaper to buy high fat/salt/sugar foods than recognisably healthier foods.

I’ve lost the link (was on the Guardian) but somebody did a study on food energy costs and surprise, surprise found that whereas 2p worth of chips = 100 calories, it would require 26p of broccoli. I can’t remember the other figures, but orange squash versus orange juice had a similar cost gap as did the other comparisons

So, you don’t have two brass tacks to rub together and you need energy….not nutrition, energy. Nutrition is a luxury.

On food vouchers. What is the fucking point when such a massive number of people simply don’t know how to cook? Or if they do, then because the household is at work all day and there are maybe five or six people to cook for every night….time…and those wonderful products of Capitalism, the food corporations, have so many of us hook, line and sinker addicted to fat, sugar and salt…fast food takeaway, TV dinners…slop and drop gunk to get us by and up in time for the next shift in the next day of the rest of our life’s.

How about a four hour working day so that people have the time to eat properly and healthily? There’s an idea. You think your grandmother made that soup in a jiffy? You think the home made meat pie was a five minute pre-mix? And while I’m ranting a tad I might as well ask, ” Where are the fucking giblets?!”

You can’t make chicken stock without giblets and they ain’t stuck up the arse of the chicken in a wee poly bag as they used to be.

if you ever get the chance however have a chat to some professionals who work in forensic psychiatry many of those I have met over the years suggest that there are some people who are just plain evil.

Knowing plenty of police, criminologists, psychologists, and the like, I can with confidence inform you that you are plain wrong, even if you hold quite a common belief. (sadly)

Most criminals commit crimes because it seemed like a good option to them at the time. Most of them are about as rational, and sometimes even as empathic, as anyone you’re likely to run into on the street. Perhaps you even knew this.

There are some people that don’t have a normal moral compass. Some of them just don’t think of other people as people the same way we do. (sometimes I suspect a few of these types are actually in Parliament after listening to the National Party) Some don’t even know what they’re doing. These people we have a genuine reason to be sorry for, I think, even when they do terrible things, as it’s very hard to say they actually carry any real sort of responsibility for their actions. It’s the reason we have an insanity plea, of course.

But the only reason people ever deliberately try to be “evil” is because they’ve let someone else define them that way over and over again until they accepted it and embraced it and did terrible things because of it, and have lost the will to become something better. Nobody is “just evil”- they became that way because of pressures on them. That’s not to say they’re not responsible for their behaviour- of course they are- but it is to say that the sort of people you’re talking about are, in one way or another, the product of terrible mistakes by the people who have known them and been significant influences on them. Nobody is “just” evil. They approximate it because they’ve been made to think that that’s all they can be.