If children are generally innocent and/or pure, why was Ted Bundy evil even as an 8 year-old?

[Liliesxoxo]

Usually a typical 7-10 year-old is playing games, acting like a kid and overall being innocent.

However, when Ted Bundy was just 8 years old, this is what he did:

• His 1st victim was setting up a cat on fire. He watched it agonize as it was burning to death. He smiled and started laughing.
• Other pets would disappeared and he would returned home with blood on his clothes or shoes.
• He bullied and beat other kids his same age

If children are generally a symbol of innocence and purity, why was Ted Bundy evil even at that early age?

[Effably]

Well first of people are conventionally not seen as innocent and pure.

In psychology the distinction between a psychopath and a sociopath are in whether ot not the trait is seen as innate.
Ted Bundy has been repeatedly diagnosed with psychopathy.

However it would still be accurate to say that children have the capacity and potential for both good and evil. And so, even a character like Ted Bundy, would not have been born evil. Rather he would have been born with some emotions and patterns of thought more and less available to him.

Many, most, psychopaths end up as high-functioning individuals that are well integrated in society.

Children are generally a symbol of purity but not good by nature. It would not take long around a preschool to note that kids have the capacity for both.
If we view innocence and purity as a state of neutrality and lack of bias, children remain mostly innocent. And of course as a species we are predisposed towards good. It is a tendency that helps us all survive.

[Liliesxoxo]

Then even as a kid, he lost his childhood purity so early on.
If children can be called evil, if you caught a little 8 year-old in the act of drowning an animal or torturing it and laughing, along with saying ''I like hurting animals, it's fun'' what would you call him/her?

[Liliesxoxo]

**If children can't be called evil**

[Effably]

Well as I said I believe children are simply neutral. Neither good nor evil and the innocence or purity referencing the lack of experience to shape them rather than some innate goodness.

I have met children who have, or tried to, torture animals. Indeed I have tutored a boy like that. I would not call him evil. It was a morbid curiosity that drove him and that can be understood and channeled in other ways.

So while the act was evil the kid was neither good nor evil but in need of guidance.

But to be clear me feeling that kids are both good and evil of course means we can consider them both. Schrödinger's Kid in a Box.

[Chazmatazz269]

I don’t believe in “evil”. That’s a descriptor born of mythology. There’s really no such thing. Most of what we consider “evil” is misunderstood mental illness. It’s no secret that Ted Bundy was mentally ill.

[CountessSarah]

Pfft, the only people who think children are innocent and sweet are people who've never been around them or don't pay attention. Children are vile, manipulative and cruel little shits. Observe how kids bully one another from even the first few years of school and that 'kids are so sweet' nonsense goes out the window.
Kids learn to be mean first, they learn empathy later.

[Liliesxoxo]

Yes kids can be cruel and mean but most kids don't go on torturing and killing animals with a smile. Otherwise every child would be on therapy. Most don't do what these 10 year-olds did with a toddler (the James Bulger case). There are only few children that go to that extreme.

[Andres77]

Something happened to him before the age of 8.
ask anyone about nambla.
thats their motto. “Get them by 8, before it’s too late.”

corrupt an innocent mind as young as possible and you have a slave for life.

[maximumpower]

Key word you used is "generally."
Some are defective from Day 1.

[Liliesxoxo]

If those defective (future psychopath as adults) kids were treated the same as in the animal world, they would probably be killed off.
In reality there is really no cure for that. Only thing a therapist and/or any professional can do is lessen the level of their already defective mind and make them adapt to society in more suitable ways. For instance they will still have psychopathy but instead of a serial killer be CEOs or other careers that don't require empathy.

[Dinosaursandanime65]

Not all of them are set in default, his parents were probably bad spiritual guides