Serial Killers...The Dark Side of Humanity

#30 You mean like the killing of hundreds of thousands of shias and kurds by saddam? or do you mean like the killing of tens of thousands of Syrians by Assad (father of Khalifa Assad II)?

Dr Sohail,

Very interesting article, I have a question for you.

Your study deals with individual serial killers in a ``normal`` societal context, how do we define the mass murders committed in the name of wars? Afterall, soldiers are trained to kill and be killed, is it not just the simple conditioning of the mind?

Society is led to believe that an individual acting in isolation does not have the right to kill while the ``state`` monopolizes all forms of violence, local and external. When leaders declare war are they not serial killers?

#24aslam644, crime is by no means low in developed countries, the US has the highest per capita rate of incarceration anywhere on earth and the highest rate of rape of all countries that publish such statistics, and the UN international crime victimization survey finds high rates across the board in developed countries where on average one in four have been victimized. Further crime is not always linked to poverty the dominant culture especially regarding rape, termed an ``all american crime`` plays a significant role as does the importance of material success, especially in white collar crime that causes much more harm than the petty burglaries or thefts and might kill many more by destroying local environments.

Re: # 23
Dear VRV...thanks for your appreciation. It is exciting to have a dialogue with all of you

sincerely sohail

Re: # 22

Dear Kamath..They checked me thoroughly at the airport because of the place of birth

on my Canadian passport was Pakistan. I told them I had a good excuse as I was

presenting a paper in a psychiatric conference. I stayed a few days longer and they told

me at the airport where I stayed. Obviously someone was following my movements. But

they did not give me a hard time. It was an amazing experience. Old Jerusalem is worth

visiting. I am not a religious person but you can feel 3000 years of history. If you can

please visit.The only other place I had that feeling of history was in Athens Greece. Israel

was the land of Moses, Jesus and Mohammad while Greece was the land of Socrates, Plato

and Aristotle....sincerely sohail

Re: # 21
dear tahmed 32...thanks for your interest. Javed Iqbal and one of his teenage accomplice

were found dead in their cells. In the beginning it was said they committed suicide. My gut

feeling was that it was not true. later on the autopsy report showed they were strangulated.

I think they knew too many police secrets and they wanted to get rid of the evidence.

It is amazing how a judge got away with a sentence that was illegal and immoral.

sincerely sohail

Re: # 24

Aslam644,

Crimes of serial killing is the focus. Otherwise crimes of different kind are more in the Orient than in the Occident. When I meant by the west, it is the US and UK.

Yes, I agree that crime rate is the lowest in Nordic countries. We know by intuition that Nordic are Scandinavian (mostly), else nordic means North (all of Northern Hemisphere? Naaa!). Generalisation is limited to the comparison of serial killing in the US+UK and Indian Subcontinent.

Thanks for ur point, btw.

Re: # 23
you are genaralising about the west,Nordic countries on the whole have very low crime rates. i personally think there is correlation, between social justice,equality and crime.

Dr. Sohail,

Yours and Science articles are my favourites on Chowk (needless to say that rest are ideological crap).

Serial killers are psychopaths. They do these things with straight face, without a trace of remorse. I had some occasions to face some criminals including right-wing Gujarati fundos who walk free even today. 1. They dont feel that what they are doing is against fellow human beings (concomitantly the law enforcement is weak). Politics influence that collective psychology - a biosphere of hate
2. individual situations make these psychopaths who think that killing somebody is OK.

Individualist societies (west) produce more psychopaths than oriental societies. I feel that there are cushions in our societies where u meet your neighbours, peers and spend a lot of time with others. In the west, u hardly know your neighbour by name, forget abt sharing meals and socialising.

Therefore it baffles me as to why our societies still produce these psychopaths? I think was (mostly) congenital mental disorders.

Re: # 20

drsohail:

Did they give any trouble to you in Israel because of your Muslim name? or harass you in any way?
Kamath

Dr. Sohail: Thanks for another very interesting article.

So, what happened to Javed Iqbal? Has he been executed yet or is he going through an appeals process? and if executed, has been been chopped up as the learned judge ordered?

And what is the deal with the judge sentencing a dead body to be cut into a thousand pieces? I am sure there is nothing in the law about this. How did the judge get away with making his own laws?

Any light you may shed would be appreciated.

Re: # 11
Dear Kamath...Whatever I write I share with professionals as well as lay people.

We all need more education to understand the mysteries of human mind. I am also in the

process of translating my articles in Urdu so that people in Pakistan can benefit from

them. I never felt creating, publishing and sharing was waste of time. sincerely sohail

ps...I also present in my professional conferences...presnted in Israel and Brazil in

international mental health and psychiatric conferences.

Re: # 6
Dear Echoboom...I am impressed by your research and your provocative style of writing.

All I can do is smile when I read your letters. I serve people in my own humble way.

It may not mean anything to you but the people who I serve appreciate it and that means

a lot to me. all the best...sohail

Re: # 5
Dear burpinder...the more I studied the subject the more I realized that these serial killers

and mass murderers are also pathological liars. Many of them claim more murders than

they have committed and create a situation where fantasy and reality get confused as they

create a myth and that is what Javed Iqbal created. sincerely sohail

Re: # 5
Dear burpinder...the more I studied the subject the more I realized that these serial killers

and mass murderers are also pathological liars. Many of them claim more murders than

they have committed and create a situation where fantasy and reality get confused as they

create a myth and that is what Javed Iqbal created. sincerely sohail

Sorry the following post was a test. It is for HP on UP.

Pls ignore it. Thanks.