I watched a program concerning serial killers last night on one of the educational channels, and was not paying that much attention until, while interviewing this killer named Rifkin (killed 16 women over a period of several years) they mentioned he was bullied in school. In the process of trying to understand why killers kill, they found out that he was dyslexic as a kid, plus awkward and had a long history of being picked on and left out of games by other children.
It increased when he went to school, where he developed into a shy guy with poor social skills, but who kept trying to blend in. His parents mentioned that the school abuse ranged from being shoved in the hallways, to fights, to ridicule to being ostracized.
After graduation, he started killing prostitutes. Subsequent tests discovered that he was not stupid, with an IQ of 120. Other tests displayed some brain dysfunction in the areas of the brain that mainly control impulses, such as the impulse to punch some stranger. Instead of providing the normal ‘don’t do it’ command, which regular people have, it allowed them through. So, he had no compunction not to kill if he felt he could get away with it.
They did not explain whether or not this was a birth defect or if it could have been caused over years of prolonged childhood stress from being picked on.
Further discussion pointed out that a great many psychiatrists and researchers have been investigation the peer abuse factors in schools – bullies/bullied – and are convinced that many killers are victims of this action. They find it hard to prove, though. One guy, using hamsters, has done psychological experiments that seem to indicate that lengthy abuse to a child by peer groups can produce killers.
I tend to agree.
I also feel that intense stress, fear, and social pressures can cause brain damage and mental illness. The latter, we already know can happen, but the former is still being looked at. For ages, peer abuse has been accepted in schools as a fact of life, such conflicts being considered necessary as learning experiences for kids, but now it appears that it is going too far.
I was looking at the playgrounds of a couple of local schools and noted the absence of a couple of pieces of equipment that I knew as a child. The iron bar climbing cube, or Jungle Gym, was gone, so was the Monkey Bars, or that ladder thing you hang under and use your arms to cross. Kids also used to climb on top of it.
These were removed because they’re dangerous. Kids can injure themselves falling through the Jungle Gym and toppling off of the Monkey Bars.
So, the schools are safety conscious enough to remove potentially dangerous equipment, but neglect the common display of bullying. Both are equally hazardous.
Now, in my opinion, not every picked on kid will grow up to be a killer or psychopath or heavily dysfunctional, but the damage can be displayed in other ways. An adult is more protected, knowing that anyone who punches, touches, harasses or threatens him or her can be sued. I have no doubt that many a previously bullied kid has risen high in business, and developed many of the ruthless, selfish business actions we see today.
It’s similar to a kid playing a game, where he takes out his hostilities on the toy soldiers or computer generated enemies. As a businessman, he can decide to increase interest rates because he quietly resents ‘them’ who borrow great amounts of money. He might fire people with little compunction, reacting more or less callously because of the callous treatment he was exposed to in school. He might order hostile take overs of businesses he really doesn’t need, putting hundreds out of work, because he is acting on an over blown need to convince himself that he is not the wimp they made him out to be in school.
He might decide to increase the cost of pharmaceuticals his company makes, less for actual greed, but more for lack of empathy for the general public, generated from no one coming to help him when he was being picked on in school.
Schools are great for that. Regular kids will stand by and watch a kid get picked on, disapproving but doing nothing. That can generate a perception in the victim of all people being scum, which might show up later in life.
That doctor who specializes in specific medicine, could be a kid victim, and his high rates are a subconscious punishment applied to the general public, who stood by all those years ago and watched his humiliation and terror without lifting a hand.
There are many, many ways peer group abuse can show up in later life after school.
