After reading Rafter's thoughts on what makes bad people bad, I was intrigued by the idea that some criminals are psychologically conditioned to commit crimes by something that has influenced them and altered their mental perception.
Dexter is one of those famous serial killer shows where the viewer can actually cheer on the serial killer without feeling twisted or evil for doing so. In later episodes and seasons we discover that Dexter went through a terrible trauma that caused him to be the way he is. Dexter doesn't have emotions- well so we are told, but I have seen him get angry and I can't that as an emotion. Dexter also has this constant desire to kill people and he has a great fascination with blood, which is why he is a forensic blood splatter specialist for a Miami police department. Dexter's MO is to kill criminals who have murdered people and will most likely continue to murder people in which Dexter justifies his killings as saving more innocent lives. In a future episode he is labeled the "Bay Harbor Butcher," and some people like him because he takes murderers off the street, but others hate him because he is still serial killer set loose in Miami.
However in this particular episode of Season 1, Dexter's true identity is still unknown to everyone and the police are tracking down the dangerous "Ice Truck Killer." However, Dexter also has his own little investigations going on in order to satisfy his murderous urges. He follows around this young teenage kid who was released from jail after serving time for slashing a guy death. Dexter believes he will strike again and actually prevents another innocent killing from happening, but when he pulls the kid in to perform his own murder, Dexter finds out that the kid is much like himself- he can feel nothing. Then we discover that the man the kid murdered had raped him, and in Dexter's eyes this act was understandable and somewhat similar to the workings that Dexter is doing himself. Then he tells the kid not to kill anyone who doesn't deserve it.
I liked this episode because it made this connection between Dexter and the kid (I can't remember his name) showing Dexter that though (in his mind) his killings are more justified, there are others out there who feel (or rather don't feel) the same way he does due to a traumatic event in their life.
The criminality of these two characters does not come from their environment and they weren't born with this evil, but their brains are psychologically altered because of these events. Spoiler alert for those who haven't seen the show yet, but Dexter, along with his older brother Brian who happens to be the Ice Truck Killer, witnessed the gory mutilation of his mother and sat in a two inch thick pool of her blood for several days before they were found by the police (specifically Harry who becomes Dexter's foster/adopted father). In order for Dexter to cope with this situation, his young three or four-year-old brain tuned out everything that happened and shut off his emotions to protect himself from the horror. Later this effected his psychological thinking into a passionate desire to kill and be fascinated by blood.
Dexter didn't choose to be a criminal. The trauma from his childhood altered him psychologically to be a criminal. However, in the real world that is something that is difficult to get a grasp of. Though, Dexter releases these urges on bad people, it doesn't change the fact that he is still a serial killer, right? It is an interesting concept to think about, and that is one of the reasons why the criminal justice system hold this psychological state of criminals into account.
When considering the mental state of the kid who killed the man who raped him, the viewer has this idea that the murder is justified, but it doesn't change the fact that there was a murder. Yet the fact an experience like that would clearly mentally effect a young kid allows us to understand that such a traumatic moment in his life would cause his mind to protect himself from the pain.
This is such a difficult subject when it comes to criminal justice because generally the cultural idea is that all criminals deserve to be put away so they can't hurt anyone else. And though this is just a television show, I think that this idea of psychologically altered conditions instigating crime is relevant and can't be ignored. Dexter didn't choose to be a criminal, it was just something that he couldn't control due to his brain function after a traumatic event in his life.
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