Consequences Of Nurture In John Wayne Gacy's In Cold Blood

A debate on whether or not Perry Smith was more controlled by nature and nurture when committing crimes is a hot topic. Most solemnly believe that this is what manipulated the actions that Perry took. According to www.simplypsychology.org, "Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception e.g. the product of exposure, experience and learning on an individual." Due to Perry Smith's exposure to abuse, the abandonment emotionally and physically from his family, and influential behavior from Dick, it led him to making extreme actions such as committing murder and other crimes.

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, a family of four was brutally murdered by shotgun blasts only a few inches from their faces. The protagonist of the story, Perry Smith, a man with a troubled past, is the one responsible for committing these murders. In framing the question nature versus nurture, Capote’s powerfully written account of the Clutter family killings asks whether a man alone can be held responsible for his actions when his environment has relentlessly neglected him; Perry Smith is a prime example. He is an intelligent, talented, and sensitive human being, who has been warped and rejected by society and his environment, and therefore cannot be held

In Truman Capote’s famous non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood, there is evidence that supports the injustices of the trial: death penalty. The final outcome of the trail was never to be any different than death. “Of all the people in all the world, the Clutters were the least likely to be murdered” (Capote 85). We know the two men who killed the Clutter family, Perry Smith and Bill Hickock, preplanned the crime with malice and forethought. Although the actions were crul and grusome, does Death Row fit what they did if their pasts, childhood environments and situation, are bad. Capote shows the effect of childhood on the killers and if the death penalty is fair. Capote gives the killers a voice to show their humanity by giving childhood

In the novel "In Cold Blood," Perry Smith committed many lethal murders while having no remorse. Some wonder if Perry's actions are due to his upbringing as a child, or the fact of who he was around in his life. Perry Smith went through many hardships in his lifetime. Some of which included torture by a nurse, all the way to being thrown into prison. Individuals are controlled primarily by their nurture rather than their nature, and I believe this is the case for Mr. Smith. Yes, Perry committed the murders of which were very vile and futile, but I believe there was a deeper reason for it than what was portrayed in the book.

Perry is a dysfunctional person because he had a dysfunctional family. Since Perry’s childhood was full of violence and neglect it rubbed off on him. By the beginning of the book the damage of his broken home and the abuse he got from those who were suppose to take care of him had already been done.

The nature vs. nurture debate has been around for as long as I could remember. Nature involves peoples genetic code and is a pre-wiring of their behavior and morals. Nurture is how someone is raised during childhood, how they are taught right from wrong, and the people that influence them throughout their childhood. Everyone is both a mix of nature and nurture, however one is more dominant in each person's life. Throughout In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, we learn about Perry’s childhood, how he was raised, and the influences on life. Perry is a product of nurture, as he had a very poor childhood and had poor influences on him all throughout his life. Truman Capote’s novel gives us, the reader, an opportunity to see how someone can be effected

The psychic of the young person is shaped by social interactions as well as the parental training. Often the young murderers were brought in pathological environments, they did not experience the parental love and acceptance, and they forced themselves to drown particular emotions so as not to appear weak. All these factors results in social dysfunctions that triggers violence and violence becomes the perfect self-defense mechanism, because it brings attention. According to the FBI’s list of traits that describe young murderers the most common syndromes are the feeling of isolation, the narcissist disorder, and depression6. A perfect example to support the above argument will be a background check of Jeff Weise, a young sixteen-year-old boy who killed 9 people and committed suicide in the Red Lake Senior High School in Minnesota in 2005. Weise’s family was the kind of pathological one, his parents were separated, his mother had a habit of drinking too much being an abusive alcoholic, what is more Weise himself was often bullied at school7.

This documentary specifies that there is no easy answer to what is going on inside the mind of killers, and we cannot simply place these individuals into “neat diagnostic boxes” that explain why their actions turned so violent. However, the investigators present research studying different avenues regarding ways to “predict” the likelihood that an individual will commit violent crime, will maintaining that no method is perfect. Throughout the presentation, viewers are offered mountains of research highlighting a mix of nature and nurture ranging from neurologists from Harvard studying brain patterns affected by genetics, to psychologists studying maternal care and attachment during infancy.

drives our actions? Yes, morals drive them, but what determines what our morals are? What is it that

In regard to a person’s ethos, if you will, an individual is not “born into” a certain role in society, rather society determines one’s role. That being said, the point I am trying to make is that, Capote firmly believes that Perry was not born a criminal, after all, how is it even possible to be born a criminal? Since everyone is born with a clean slate, you can’t literally be born a criminal, although some people theorize that you can be born with criminal-like characteristics; Truman Capote was not one of those people. Capote believes that society shapes an individual, and it has nothing to do with genetics. Perry Smith became a “criminal” not because he was “born that way”, rather because of the experiences he endured during his adolescence. Finally, Capote’s novel is no ordinary novel, and I reckon that In Cold Blood was actually a brannigan focused on the judicial system of America and strong

In regard to a person’s ethos, if you will, an individual is not “born into” a certain role in society, rather society determines one’s role. That being said, the point I am trying to drive home is that, Capote firmly believes that Perry was not born a criminal, after all, how is it even possible to be born a criminal? Since everyone is born with a clean slate, you can’t literally be born a criminal, although some people theorize that you can be born with criminal-like characteristics; Truman Capote was not one of those people. Capote believes that society shapes an individual, and it has nothing to do with genetics. Perry Smith became a “criminal” not on the grounds that he was “born that way”, rather by cause of the experiences he endured during his adolescence. Finally, Capote’s novel is no ordinary novel, and I reckon that In Cold Blood was actually a brannigan

Additionally, Eagleman states as we have a more thoroughly educated understanding of the human brain we can move from a legal system that labels people blameworthy, to a more forward-thinking system that will bring into account was it his fault or his biology’s fault? With that in mind, Eagleman suggest that if you don’t think a person’s genes effect how a person behaves consider this fact: If you are a carrier of certain genes, the probability that you will commit a violent crime is four times more likely than if you lacked those genes, your eight times more likely to commit a murder, and thirteen times more likely to be arrested for a sexual offence. As a matter of fact, the majority of prisoners carry these same genes, additionally, 98.1%

As kids grow up, they look up to their parents and any other big figures in their life. Sometimes these people can pass down negative traits to their children because their lives do not set the best examples for their kids. If these traits are all a child learns on how to live life, then they might try to follow them, sending their lives down a negative spiral. In the book In Cold Blood, Perry has a chaotic childhood. He only completes

Let's take Iceman, for example, he was raised without love lot of beatings for no reasons. He has been hurt growing up and that just messed his life up in future that he ended up being such a hateful person that he killed hundreds of people, even if they have done no harm to him. He was raised so hatefully that he got pleasure when he was killing someone and hearing them scream while dying.

The way we think and our mental functions basically rule our lives, for the better or for worse. The way we process and make decisions has brought us all throughout our lives, to this point in time, but what causes us to go through with the decisions, big or small, that immensely affect our lives? Is it people the people?, the pictures?, memories, influences? There are things that resonate in the back of our heads that we are always thinking about subconsciously, whether we realize it or not. How do we purposely instill things in our mind to think about or to make decisions on? How can we instill being ecofriendly, into our daily lives.