Criminal Minds:
Predatory Mind

An enlightening view into the heart of darkness: the treachery of criminal minds, what tricks might be up a predator’s sleeve, and how to beat him at his own game.

Most dictionaries define the word evil in a dozen lines. But the American Psychiatric Association has spent years exploring what evil is, why some people do evil things, and how to prevent evil. They've identified factors that military despots use to push ordinary, "good" people to do bad things: obedience to authority, anonymity, diffusion of responsibility, indoctrination, and dehumanization of the enemy.

The APA has a "Depravity Scale" to assess a criminals' intent, actions and attitudes – and the degree of evil involved. Some examples:
• Intentionally traumatizing the victim through humiliation, terror, or creating a haunting memory (such as making a child witness torture).
• Prolonging and intensifying a victim's suffering.
• Targeting a helpless victim.

PSYCHOTIC - LEGALLY INSANE

(If they do try to hide their crime, that proves they knew it was wrong but did it anyway, thus they're not legally insane.)

According to Indianapolis police Captain Robert L. Snow, author of "Protecting Your Life, Home, and Property," one extreme psychotic killed a cop then was shot nine times while still maniacally trying to kill a second cop until a tenth bullet shattered his pelvis and kept him on the ground.

One way for an unarmed victim to survive such an attack is to “outcrazy” the attacker. Fight fire with fire by unleashing your "animal within” (see Optimal Mindset). Fight with the utmost ferocity and the most brutal of Fighting Options, such as blinding and crippling him then escaping.

That may sound preposterous, but what other tools do you have? Time and again, victims with no tools almost prevailed but their efforts fell just a bit short. Just in case, learn these simple but powerful fighting options. Even if you lose after all – going out with a roar rather than a whimper – at least you give yourself a fighting chance. Besides, you may well win. See Acting.

Duke medical sociologist Dr. Jeffrey Swanson says, "While it's true that people with mental disorders are three times more likely to become violent, it's also true that most people with mental illness are not violent.”

Though most rampaging mass-murder shooters are psychotic, mass murders are statistically rare. However, alcoholic or drug-addicted psychotics are four times as likely to commit a violent crime than the average person. In contrast, clean psychotics are only 1.2 times the average risk. Overall, they comprise less than five percent of all violent offenders. Most simply aren’t capable of the coherent cunning of a predatory criminal mind’s stealthy hunting and trapping.

PSYCHOPATH - LEGALLY SANE

Psychologists estimate that at least one percent of the general population is unfeeling enough to qualify as a psychopath, and far more among criminals. The ranks include serial killers as well as a great many others who never commit a crime, but go through life using and abusing others without remorse. The world's foremost authority on psychopaths, professor Robert D. Hare of the University of British Columbia, says that emotion for psychopaths is like a second language, one they must struggle to speak and never master deep down. Emotions for psychopaths are abstractions, much as they are for Data or Mr. Spock on "Star Trek." Most conventional treatment, like group therapy, only makes psychopaths worse; it seems to train them in manipulating people and faking emotions.

Experts on criminal minds say that psychopaths, while having an extreme mental disorder, are legally sane – they know right from wrong but commit a crime anyway. By trying to hide their crime, they prove they knew it was wrong – thus they are sane per the McNaughton rule.

Psychopathic symptoms include a core, aggressive narcissism and being psychically isolated from other people. They believe they’re entitled to do whatever they want (in a cool, calm narcissistic rage). They lack a conscience, thus never feel guilt or loyalty. Without compassion for others – the essence of humanity – they easily deceive and harm those within the larger population of trusting folk.

However, most psychopaths (a.k.a. malignant narcissists) don't have violent criminal minds, such as social or workplace bullies, swindlers, tyrannical bosses, promiscuously unfaithful lovers, and (knowingly) disease-infected sex partners. They wreak havoc but rarely go to prison.

Most psychopaths (both the full-blown and the sub-clinical) succeed in the military, business (used-car salespeople, lawyers, corporate CEO's), or politics – or anywhere cunning, ruthless ambition thrives. At the top, they too wreak havoc and rarely go to prison – and in fact essentially rule the world.

To a lesser degree, everyone is necessarily self-centered but the psychopath's criminal mind is the ultimate selfish brat grown up into a pitiless, cold-blooded adult.

If you work in an office, watch out for corporate psychopaths – your boss or the person sitting next to you, the New Scientist magazine warns. They may not be violent but their psychopathic character traits are helping them rise in corporate ranks. Professor Robert Hare, of the University of British Columbia, says that corporate psychopaths are ruthless, manipulative, and superficially charming – the very traits that help them climb the corporate ladder but can also harm those companies. They also make coworkers miserable with their fits of rage, blaming others for their mistakes, and taking credit for other people's work.

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Psychopathic killers often find great pleasure in torturing victims. Some scientists consider them evil. Evil in that their diabolical savagery has no psychological explanation. The offender is rated on a 20-item test that includes glibness and superficial charm, grandiose self-worth, and pathological lying. The originator of the checklist, Dr. Robert D. Hare, of the University of British Columbia, said that average total scores vary from below five in the general population to the low 20's in prison populations, to 30-40 – highly psychopathic – in predatory killers. He said, "There are some who are psychopathic, sadistic, and sane – for whom evil acts are no big deal."

Dr. Hare's Psychopathy Check List (PCL) has 20 questions and scores answers at 0, 1, or 2 points – with 40 points maximum. Serial killers score in the 30-40 range and are considered "true" psychopaths. Most violent prisoners score above 20. Ordinary people score 0-5. Scores of 6-29 are considered "sub-clinical psychopaths." Though psychopaths are ruthless to varying degrees and in various ways, most are not violent criminals. The violent criminal minds of psychopaths – from petty thugs and battering spouses to serial rapists and serial killers – score somewhere between 6 and 40 on the PCL.

Psychopaths are master deceivers, carefully creating and then preserving their masks. The positive first impressions they make are long-lasting because we trust our initial judgments of people. We also want to give people the benefit of the doubt. We accept whatever supports our first impression, and reject whatever doesn't. If we doubt anything, the psychopath has a smooth explanation to cover it.

Psychopaths have another shared quality, one not on Dr. Hare's psychopath checklist or easily measured. Their eyes are different. The extreme psychopath's gaze has been described as unsettling, creepy, cold, piercing, empty, reptilian, not quite human.

Psychopaths cannot feel compassion or guilt. They'll kill a human as easily as a fly. They can charm when needed, and they can ruin people's lives on a whim. Their main trait is being phenomenally selfish. They have a tough ego that's extremely resistant to change. In fact, they're masters at controlling therapists trying to assess and "change" them. For instance, Paul Beart was convicted in England of a brutal rape and sentenced to five years. He quickly convinced prison staff that he was fit for a rehabilitation course, which he passed, and was released two years early. Within months, he raped and murdered Deborah O'Sullivan, a stranger he chose at random.

Psychopaths comprise up to 25% of U.S. prisoners, and up to 4% of the general population (who are in the 30-40 PCL range – but many more are in the 6-29 sub-clinical range). Since a psychopath’s main defect is “concealed” – with an absence of easily readable signs – its diagnosis is controversial. Thus, psychopathy isn’t included as a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association. Instead, the more general Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) diagnosis applies to the criminal minds who commit a broad range of aggressive crimes.

Sociopaths (often confused with psychopaths) have a criminal mind's attitude, behavior, and moral code shared by their social group – usually a street gang, ethnic faction, religious sect, cult, or element – that rejects the laws and morals of the larger society in which they reside. (The confusion stems from the fact that some sociopaths also happen to be psychopaths.)

MONSTERS are MONSTERS - EVIL is EVIL

MIRROR IMAGING - DO NOT DO IT

Yet most people who’ve had tough lives have not chosen to be violent predators (such as the siblings of serial killers). Being dealt a lousy hand in life may help explain why callous predators have criminal minds, but excuses nothing. A tough life simply is not a valid excuse for committing a crime, otherwise millions more people with hard-luck stories would have an excuse to wreak havoc. Most poor people and most people who’ve had a troubled childhood do not commit violent crimes.

Though all criminal minds prey on others, only a minority of them choose to become egregiously violent predators. They are not to be pitied – their victims are. They blithely choose to inflict harm on others, either for personal gain or for the twisted thrill of a godlike power of life and death.

A veteran New York City undercover cop said, "There are predators out there who get off –like a sexual experience – on people's pain and crying and begging. They love it."

Cruelty to animals leading to other violence has been well-documented for centuries. Professor Frank Ascione's studies at Utah State University have shown that most violent and sexual offenders had a history of childhood animal abuse. For instance, Australian serial killer Paul Denyer's childhood progression from slashing his sister's teddy bears (destroying something that someone loves), to a kitten's throat, to his eventual murders as an adult was a classic case of animal abuse escalating to serial killing. Vets in New Zealand and Britain are legally allowed to report animal cruelty but Australian and US vets cannot.

Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Anyone who can be cruel to something that is helpless, and that provides unconditional love – is beyond troubled, they are evil.

Serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson said there wasn't much difference between killing a cat and killing a person, except it was easier to kill a person – they fought back feebly. He said when you have your hands around the throat of a puppy, cat or human, you get to be God. There was no greater rush for him than that.

Russian serial killer Alexander Pichushkin said he didn't take money or jewelry from his victims. "I didn't need it. I took the most valuable thing, human life. I felt like God."

These devils-in-disguise are the fiends and monsters of legend. Chameleon-like, their criminal minds manipulate their prey to gain life-and-death control over them and delight in their victim’s begging for mercy and cowering in fear.

"It cannot be called ingenuity to kill one’s fellow citizens. By these means one can acquire power but no glory."
Excerpted from The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli – 1513

FIGHT FIRE WITH GREATER FIRE

Sure, he may seethe with anger and even welcome token resistance to further his sadistic pleasure, but nevertheless he carefully avoids any real challenge to his total control over a defenseless victim. “They never go after weightlifters,” said former FBI agent and expert on the criminal minds of serial killers Robert Ressler. A truly brave man is too proud of his self-image and respected reputation to behave so cowardly by choosing easy targets.

Ultimately, the psychological profiles of predators are much like the pugnacious yet fainthearted schoolyard bullies but older, bolder, and with more treacherously evil criminal minds. And therein is the key to surviving a life-and-death confrontation with them.

You must prevent anyone from getting near you – or isolating you – in a secluded location (as described in Outdoor Safety - Overview). You must act to escape his trap by explosively attacking him (preferably before he attacks you – as described in When to Fight).

Far from a superman, he can be badly injured or even killed by your self-righteous fury and the fighting methods in Fighting Options - Overview. You must “go animal!” on him. Adopt a rabid pit bull attitude – imitating the most vicious dog you've ever seen – and become his worst nightmare by attacking him with a maniacal ferocity. When it’s time to “do-or-die,” you’d better do – your will to survive must surpass his will to kill you.

Anyway, what other choice do you have? When someone’s trying to kill you, your best bet – your only chance, your only hope – is to not whimper, but to fight with the utmost ferocity. See Optimal Mindset and Self Defense Techniques.

Deter a predator by holding Pepper Spray & a Personal Security Alarm (a.k.a. noisemaker or screamer) in plain sight.

Crime Prevention Tips & Personal Safety Devices

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