For my Law and Society Paper, I wrote about Evan Miller. At 14, Miller was convicted of first degree murder, arson and robbery charges. I spent a lot of time trying to understand the decisions of the Supreme Court, but I am more interested by the crime itself and what led Miller to live a violent lifestyle in the first place. Miller was only 14, which meant that he was still experiencing cognitive development. During developmental years, humans easily become influenced by the things happening around them, which is why things like peer pressure and societal norms are known to greatly impact teens especially.
I am a firm believer that children are products of their surroundings. If a child is shown hate and violence than most of the time that child will grow up to reflect that in their actions and how they treat others. Somewhere in Miller's past he was shown that violence and stealing are acceptable behaviors if they get you what you want, whether that be power, revenge or someone's personal items.
Although important, it seems that not every parent is able to comprehend the idea that their behavior heavily influences their child's upbringing. Do you guys think that this is a problem that can be fixed?
I think the case you researched definitely addresses the idea of nature versus nurture. Some people think that humans can be prone to this kind of behavior (like the psychopaths and sociopaths we studied earlier in the year) but I agree with you that a majority of people are heavily influenced by their childhood experiences. I'm not sure if there's a solution to fully solve the problem that you brought up, at the end of the day there isn't really a way for us to control peoples actions and behaviors that occur with their own families behind closed doors.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, yes, nurture is an incredibly powerful force in children and parents can't fix this. A good example of nurture and nature can be found with the Hitler Youth. Many of the children had never known a Germany that wasn't Hitler's and so when they fought they fought fanatically. There were cases where after they had fired every round of ammunition they had these 9-10 year olds used their daggers on suicide mission to kill as many Allied troops as they could. Despite all the influence that their parents used to steer them clear they still fell into the trap. No matter how much their parents tried the surrounding overrode their thinking to no fault of the parents.
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