Alyssa Lee

Final KWK Response

Over the course of the semester, we have heard countless arguments for why children

can become capable of killing. The first view we looked at was the idea that some kids are just

“born bad,” highlighted by the 1956 film The Bad Seed. In the film, a mother comes to terms

with the fact that her seemingly angelic daughter may be far more sinister than she appears.

Next we reviewed several studies about the similarities and differences between violent

juvenile offenders who had high or low socioeconomic status. Surprisingly, the researchers

concluded that it was actually the kids with high SES who were more at risk. Of course we

couldn’t have a class about “kids who kill” without visiting the most famous example: Lord of

the Flies. We were also presented with a lot of interesting studies surrounding the neuroscience

of deviant brains. However, the authors of Brainwashed provided ample evidence that it’s best

to take those studies with a healthy dose of skepticism.

My personal philosophy is to just go with the flow. Things happen without rhyme or

reason and you’ll only drive yourself crazy trying to find one. I don’t subscribe to the idea that

“everything happens for a reason.” I’ve seen too many bad things happen to good people.

Because of this, I don’t believe researchers will ever find a concrete reason why some kids kill

and others don’t. Regarding the articles by the Rosenbaums, I find myself agreeing with both of

them. I particularly liked the points made in the article about revenge where he made the point

that if justice was what we were truly after the SEALs would have taken bin Laden alive in order

to stand trial. What we all really wanted was revenge, we have just been conditioned that it’s

uncivilized to admit it.

 While I do not believe there is always a reason why someone did something awful, I do

believe that they can be influenced into behaving a certain way. I’ve been raised Roman

Catholic so I always had a sense of right and wrong, good and evil. I’ve mentioned before that

my parents have 5 degrees between them and there was never any conversation about me

doing something other than going to college. As anyone who grows up with a sister knows,

sometimes you antagonize each other so much that you end up with more than a few bumps

and scrapes. My sister and I both have scars from each other but they’re all very old. Once my

parents caught us fighting they’d put a stop to it quick. They always emphasized healthier

coping mechanisms for our anger, like sitting apart in our individual rooms to read or color. I

think that’s why neither of us ended up becoming more violent. I was lucky enough to have

peers that didn’t see violence and subcultural behavior as “cool.” There were a handful of

friends like this throughout my childhood that I tried to make, but once my parents met them I

never really talked to them again. At the time I definitely saw it as an asshole move but now I

appreciate them cutting me off from experiencing a negative influence. I also think that because

my parents chose to foster my intelligence and my creativity so much, it didn’t really leave me

any time to even think about subcultural behavior and violence. I was always in after-school art

classes, basketball (until everyone else got much taller and I didn’t), or some sort of activity.

Eventually I became so attached to them that the idea of doing something subcultural or violent

was unappealing because I knew it would result in me losing the things that I enjoyed. As I’ve

gotten older, those social controls have only gotten stronger. I want to be in law enforcement

so I’ve made a conscious effort to stay away from illegal drugs (yes, even marijuana) because I

know the devastating consequences they would have on my goals.