Originally Posted by
Miss Flicts
What separates us? Our psychological set-up is different. For most of us, our personal set of urges/impulses does not include the urge to hurt/molest children, and does include a sense of conscience and ability to feel empathy.
We are each a unique cocktail of ingredients and there are hundreds of unusual urges/impulses which most of us don't have, but occur in a small number of people. It's a big scale, from 'totally harmless' at one end, to 'totally horrific' at the other end.
Unfortunately, at the horrific end of the scale some people have the desire/impulse to molest or hurt children. Some with the impulse don't act on it, because they also have other feelings which stop them (conscience or fear of getting caught).
The ones who actually commit these horrific acts are the ones who also lack a sense of conscience or inhibition. This is the scary combination: Impulse to molest/hurt + lack of conscience/inhibition.
Lack of conscience in itself does not mean someone will commit violent or horrific crimes though. There are plenty of self-serving people who lack conscience/inhibition, but don't have any urge to molest or hurt anyone. In this case, they will usually commit monetary crime - 'con men' are often in this category.
I don't think any type of self-motivated crime can be compared with the nazis or war crimes, because crimes commited as part of a group/organisation or under orders have a completely different and more complex set of motivating factors, including obedience to authority and self-preservation.
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