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Most murderers just need to get a life
The Australian ^ | January 14, 2006 | Theodore Dalrymple

Posted on 01/13/2006 9:46:54 PM PST by tbird5

WHEN one has prepared a number of reports on murderers, both for the prosecution and for the defence, one begins to discern certain patterns. Of course, it is possible that these patterns are not real, or rather are the consequence of the selection of cases that are sent for report.

For example, there is one rather startling group of murderers who kill with a single, fatal stab to a vital organ of their beloved, from which one might be inclined to conclude that this group is anatomically and physiologically well informed: until, that is, one realises that reports are seldom required on those who have aimed a single stab at the thigh or other dispensable part of their soulmate's body.

Still, one cannot help but notice certain recurrent themes in cases of murder (I include manslaughter). Most cases are simply sordid, with no murder-mystery romance to them whatsoever. They are most commonly the result of what police and culprit alike call "a domestic", or of a drunken brawl that "went too far";, or, less commonly, of a childish vendetta among petty criminals. They are mostly impulsive and low-tech, unsophisticated though often carried out with considerable brutality.

The culprit often remembers, or claims to remember, very little of the fatal moment. "And the next thing," he says - for it is usually though not quite always a he - "she was lying there, covered in blood."

(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: anthonydaniels; dalrymple; theodoredalrymple

1 posted on 01/13/2006 9:46:56 PM PST by tbird5
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To: tbird5
Most murderers just need to get a life

...of their own, preferably. Not someone else's, thank-you.

2 posted on 01/13/2006 9:54:59 PM PST by Reaganesque
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To: tbird5

---The culprit often remembers, or claims to remember, very little of the fatal moment.---

They're often drunk.


3 posted on 01/13/2006 9:58:14 PM PST by claudiustg (Go Bush! Go Sharon!)
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To: tbird5

An oddly fascinating article. Interesting observations.


4 posted on 01/13/2006 10:10:04 PM PST by Ramius (Buy blades for war fighters: freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net --> 1000 knives and counting!)
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To: claudiustg

What's so new about inbred, government fed and medicated white trash killing each other?


5 posted on 01/13/2006 10:13:19 PM PST by 308MBR (After over 20 years of GOP only, I'm voting a split ticket in 'O6 and hoping for gridlock.)
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To: 308MBR
...white trash...

Hmmmph.

6 posted on 01/13/2006 10:16:26 PM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
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To: Ramius

Dalrymple is always an excellent read.


7 posted on 01/13/2006 10:16:33 PM PST by Choose Ye This Day (ApocAlito Now.)
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To: tbird5
I am overwhelmed by a sense of the unfitness for life of all the participants in these sordid dramas: their main problem was that they had not the faintest idea how to live and yet - this is the hallmark of modernity - they were plentifully supplied with ego.

They had received no guidance from religion, naturally enough, since God is dead for them, and never has been very much alive. As for social convention, it has not so much been destroyed as turned inside out. The poor who once prided themselves on such things as respectability, cleanliness, honesty, orderliness and thrift, often in the most difficult circumstances, now pride themselves on their bohemianism. Disorder and chaos are a metonym for freedom and authenticity. But they are bohemians without being artistic, and the result is a squalor scarcely credible in times of supposed prosperity.

Nailed it.

8 posted on 01/13/2006 10:21:20 PM PST by Choose Ye This Day (ApocAlito Now.)
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To: tbird5

More upbeat stuff from Dr. Dalrymple, author of Life At The Bottom--The Worldview That Makes The Underclass. I do enjoy reading him. I think he is employed by the British National Health Service(?).


9 posted on 01/13/2006 10:22:34 PM PST by Sicvee (Sicvee)
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To: tbird5

I would suspend the death penalty in this country ONLY because it is so darn expensing (in the many millions) to get someone executed.

I would be for life, no parole, no special medical access, little reading, no TV, no Internet, no fun till they die on their own.
If they get a cancer, some pain medication and that is it.
Bad heart? Get them some cheap medicine till they die.

Give them little quality of life and maintain them cheap as possible.

Send the billions a year back to the states for better uses IMO.

I can't see well over ten million dollars in court challenges before they kill someone.
What a waste of money.


10 posted on 01/13/2006 10:23:27 PM PST by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: Petronski

Growing up in the armpit of southern Appalachia, I know it when I smell it.


11 posted on 01/13/2006 10:50:25 PM PST by 308MBR (After over 20 years of GOP only, I'm voting a split ticket in 'O6 and hoping for gridlock.)
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To: A CA Guy
EXCEPT, you got a guy about to be put down in CA that killed 3 people AFTER getting a life sentence for another murder.

What about cases like that?

12 posted on 01/14/2006 8:33:17 AM PST by packrat35 (The America hating bastards at the NYT must spend their entire life with their heads in the toilet)
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