[silk] Doctors Seek Way to Measure Evil

["Udhay Shankar N" <udhay@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Measuring" Evil? "Consensus morality" ? Both of the above sound like 
really bad ideas to me. Reactions ?

Udhay

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010511/hl/psychiatry_evil.html

Friday May 11 2:52 AM ET
Doctors Seek Way to Measure Evil 

By JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - ``Evil'' is not a word most psychiatrists like. But some 
are trying to find a way to measure it.

During a symposium Thursday at the American Psychiatric Association 
convention, Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist, asked more than 
120 psychiatrists to help create a depravity scale which could be used by 
the courts to judge criminals.

Every day, judges ask juries to decide whether crimes are heinous, 
atrocious, cruel, outrageous, wanton, vile or inhuman - aggravating factors 
which can increase sentences and even lead to the death penalty in some 
states.

But there are no universal standards to define such terms, Welner told the 
overflow audience. The interpretations often depend on judges' and jurors' 
emotions and biases, and politics or media attention can influence whether 
a prosecutor asks for execution, he said.

In his effort to create a scale to measure depravity in defendants, Welner, 
who has testified as both a prosecution and defense witness, created a list 
of 26 indications of intent, actions and attitudes which could be used to 
rate crimes.

Among the intents are whether the person meant to cause emotional trauma, 
cause permanent disfigurement, or terrorize or target the helpless. Actions 
include whether an attack was unrelenting or the attacker prolonged the 
victim's suffering. Attitudes include blaming the victim, having disrespect 
for the victim or taking satisfaction in the crime.

Welner is asking judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, psychiatrists and 
theologians to go to his Web site and rate each indicator for whether they 
believe it is especially, somewhat or not at all representative of 
depravity.

The object is to find indicators which all or most experts agree on, a 
``consensus morality'' which could be used in court.

Thursday's symposium, titled ``How Psychiatry Defines Evil,'' was held on 
the final evening of the convention.

Dr. Michael Stone of Columbia University also showed slides of nearly three 
dozen killers and others whom he considers evil.

A woman who burned one of her three daughters alive and starved another to 
death was ``at the extreme edge of evil ... one of the most clearly evil 
persons'' of more than 400 whose biographies he has read, Stone said.

However, he added that ``the bulk of evil on a world scale is committed by 
ideologues and their followers.'' Wars and persecutions, from the Spanish 
Inquisition to the fighting in Bosnia, show people are capable of 
``bottomless cruelty to those outside the tribe, especially in times of 
hardship and hunger,'' he said.

Welner also discussed other research that has highlighted problems with 
trying to measure depravity in criminals, primarily that some traits 
associated with people who cannibalize, mutilate or torture their victims 
also can be found in people who don't commit such crimes.

Dr. Cleo Van Velsen, a forensic psychiatrist from London who was in the 
audience, said another challenge is determining why people commit acts that 
can be described as evil.

``We know they exist, but not why they are produced,'' she said.

Dr. John L. Young of New Haven, Conn., said he found ``depravity'' a more 
acceptable term than ``evil.''

Trying to create a fairer, more reliable measurement for a word used in 
court is one thing, he said, but ``I'm not holy enough, not saintly or 
godly enough to tamper with evil.''


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((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))