Via Outside The Beltway, a NYT article on a study into the existance of evil.
In an effort to standardize what makes a crime particularly heinous, a group at New York University has been developing what it calls a depravity scale, which rates the horror of an act by the sum of its grim details. And a prominent personality expert at Columbia University has published a 22-level hierarchy of evil behavior, derived from detailed biographies of more than 500 violent criminals. He is now working on a book urging the profession not to shrink from thinking in terms of evil when appraising certain offenders, even if the E-word cannot be used as part of an official examination or diagnosis. “We are talking about people who commit breathtaking acts, who do so repeatedly, who know what they’re doing, and are doing it in peacetime” under no threat to themselves, said Dr. Michael Stone, the Columbia psychiatrist, who has examined several hundred killers at Mid-Hudson Psychiatric Center in New Hampton, N.Y., and others at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, where he consults and teaches. “We know from experience who these people are, and how they behave,” and it is time, he said, to give their behavior “the proper appellation.”
Next up: Scientists review 16 different criteria by which to establish whether or not fish swim.
Sounds very interesting.
Heh.
To quote a PhD Candidate friend of mine: “Argh, avast matey, there’s a PhD or two in them thar details!”
And for a million bucks i will try to determine why feet get wet when you wade.
Next they’ll be telling us that apes are our cousins!
/sarcasm
Only 22 levels of evilitude based on over 500 resumes? Obviously insufficiently nuanced. Yes, there are PhDs aplenty lurking in those fetid swamps for those with eyes to see.
Well spoken considering the bent:
“We are talking about people who commit breathtaking acts, who do so repeatedly, who know what they’re doing, and are doing it in peacetime”
Well, I’m impressed that they are admitting the existence of people out there who are truly bad, rather than misguided, or misunderstood, or confused. Bad people who do bad things: it’s quite a stark way to formulate it, no?