Law and Order theme: kid's a sociopath... what next?

[Sour-rose]

So i came back to answer some questions and ask mine of course. Hope y'all doing good. ANyways, kid on Law and order killed another boy and was a manipulative son of... you know. Doctor said hell no and killed the kid asap. I watched the ending and he basically said "Better to do it now than he kill again."

Read some comments how some folks are literally born evil. Soo made me think... if we know someone we loved is not right in the head and there is no fixing it... do you think it's right to shun them from the- I'M NOT SAYING YOU HAVE TO FOR GOD'S SAKE. I'm just saying... it's a bad apple. You can kill them, keep trying and maybe regret it... or lock 'em up for life. Which is more... justifiable?

*loads up.99* "Charlieee! Can you come help daddy/mommy for a sec?"

If there's even a 0.1 chance of light, i'll try to my death.

I love them to much to kill... so enjoy your next life in jail, bud.

[abc3643]

What were you watching?

This does remind me of a Season 11 episode of "Law & Order" titled "Killerz". A 10-year-old girl, Jenny Brandt, enjoyed killing (she killed a cat deliberately by poisoning it) and killed a boy, Aaron Polansky.

Before court, the prosecution had psychiatrist Dr. Emile Skoda interview her. Here, she describes to him how she killed the cat:

"I gave it some ice cream, but I put chemicals in the ice cream, like, for the floors and stuff. It started screaming and choking, then it went dead. It was way cool."

Since she wasn't an adult, her fate was decided in Family Court.

Here is how Skoda describes Jenny to DA Jack McCoy and ADA Abbie Carmichael...

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Dr. Skoda: Jenny's been emotionally abused, maybe physically. She lashes out when her anger reaches the boiling point.

Abbie Carmichael: So we lock this girl up?

Dr. Skoda: Get used to it. There are more and more girls committing violent crimes. I don't see anything from Jenny except a future of escalating antisocial behavior.

Jack McCoy: What makes you say that?

Dr. Skoda: Emotional abuse, the snuffed cat, blacked out photographs, her lack of response when I went after her.

Jack McCoy: Fantasies about hurting little boys.

Dr. Skoda: Previews of coming attractions. She's graduated to murder. She's not going to stop.

Abbie Carmichael: You sound pretty sure.

Dr. Skoda: The kid's a done deal. She's a textbook serial killer. You just got her early.

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Skoda's testimony in court while being questioned by Ms. Sharkey, Jenny's lawyer.

Dr. Skoda: (about Jenny Brandt) If she were my patient, she'd be institutionalized.

Ms. Sharkey: So you'd give up on her without even trying to treat her?

Dr. Skoda: I have no problem trying to treat her behind bars.

Ms. Sharkey: A little dispassionate, don't you think, Doctor?

Dr. Skoda: I'll save my compassion for next kid she kills.

======

Here's how Ms. Sharkey summarized in court. (A woman was the judge.)

"Your honor, my client is 10 years old. She has teddy bears on her bedspread and a Big Bird piggy bank filled with pennies, and she killed a child. It's so incongruous, it's almost inconceivable. Dr. Olivet has testified that because of her age and because of the way her brain works, she simply couldn't appreciate that as she struck Aaron Polansky with a rock, she was killing him. Jenny thought she could revive him with a 1-1/2 volt battery. It speaks for itself. Mr. McCoy's position is to ignore the question of responsibility and brand Jenny Brandt a killer. She'll never change. We have to put her away. People change. If anyone can change, it's a child. And Dr. Olivet has emphasized that this will not happen in a state mental hospital. Mr. McCoy's solution is a solution of last resort. Please, don't give up on her, Judge."

DA Jack McCoy then summarized...

"Jenny got dealt a lousy hand. I look at her with pity and regret, but Jenny Brandt is trouble. She battered Aaron Polansky's head and stuffed him in a pipe. Miss Sharkey wants us to believe that she didn't appreciate what she did. I don't agree. Jenny daydreams about killing small boys. She even had a trial run with a cat, but ultimately what she could or could not appreciate is irrelevant. Jenny is a loaded gun! She has a cocked fist with a rock in it! She needs to be stopped before she kills again! Dr. Olivet talks about sending Jenny to a state institution like it's a death sentence. That turns the world upside down. Aaron Polansky got a death sentence! Jenny would get treatment. Now, everybody knows state psychiatric care could be better, but letting Jenny get away with murder won't help this girl. How will she ever appreciate that her actions have consequences if there are none? And how many children will she kill before the adult criminal justice system can take over? Do we have to wait and see? Miss Sharkey would like us to cross our fingers and hope. Hope that it won't happen again. I have my own kind of hope. I hope the state doctors can find a way to fix this girl. I hope that it takes six months, but until they do, we can't afford Miss Sharkey's brand of hope. We need to protect the Aaron Polanskys of this world from Jenny Brandt."

=========

She wasn't let go, but she got off lightly having to go through therapy. McCoy lost.

You could see at the end of this episode that this girl was never going to change which was Skoda's point. She looked at a little boy as if he was her next victim. McCoy noticed but there was nothing he could do.

[Sour-rose]

It was the one with the kid who killed another and tried to do the pity card? I don't remember the episode but that kid... well you saw how it ended. Which makes me think... there's two ways it can go... and i guess justice is blind. :/ As they say. I have no input in this but... my lawyer friend, you have no eyes of the future?

Just made me think how do we deal with something like that.

[abc3643]

Well, whatever you saw was not the episode that I described. I am not familiar with the episode you described. This was "Law & Order" or one of the spin-offs?

[Sour-rose]

i feel like one of the spin offs? Elliot (ya know guy from SVU) was there? so maybe it was that law and order; law and order SVU

[abc3643]

Eliot was in SVU but he left and is now with L&O: Organized Crime.

[DrPepper12]

You can't. Mindcrimes don't count or we'd all be locked up! You HAFTA wait for them to act.

And yes. Some people (mostly male) ARE born PSYCHOPATHS. Just check the "Dark Triad" to focus your efforts on finding them:

Here's the differences:

Make sure you don't use these terms interchangeably. They are very different!

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

If you really want a nuanced discussion about this, it might be better to look at something like “We Need To Talk About Kevin” than Law and Order: SVU. It shows just how much parenting can affect the choices your child makes in childhood, even if the kid already has sociopathic tendencies.

[jshm2]

Meh, it's bullshit oversimplification. But it's to be expected as it has to be made interesting for TV.

In reality, few kids kill, and there is NO scientific test for sociopathy for kids - it's only for adults.

The few kids who go on to kill tend to have other issues, that express more than what can later be diagnosed as "sociopathy"

[exitseven]

I know that there are kids i knew that turned out to be dirtbags. They are not serial killers but just basic low lifes. They were like that in grade school. Stealing from other kids, lying about everything and other stuff. They just got worse. One guy I knew did a stretch in federal prison. He was always a bad kid.

[NathanDavis]

two evils didn't make it right...

now both would be kept apart, though... in the grave and in prison

[strateguy632]

You can't know "no fixing."

Usually people don't change... but some find jesus!