I once met a UK prison officer (no I was not an inmate) and he told me that most murders are one off crimes commited by a law abiding person who snaps once. The person is unlikely to ever commit another serious crime in their life.
But I know that some criminals are pure evil and have the potential to commit murder again and again.
I think that the real acid test is the question "would I feel happy about being the hangman or gunman who has the job of killing criminals".
I would have to say that for the majority of murder cases I would feel deeply unhappy about killing the criminal, but in selected cases where there are clear aggravating features of the crime I would be willing to do the job. To me it would not be fun or a jolly act, but instead an nasty job which needed doing for the good of society.
I think in the cases of Bundy, the Washington Sniper, Andrei Chikatilo, Fred West and nazi concentration camp guards and commandants I would be OK about doing it.
But in cases like Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis I would be very unhappy about it and I like to think I would refuse to do it.
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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !
Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.