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Measuring Evil: It's a Science
5.11.01 AP
NEW ORLEANS "Evil" is not a word most psychiatrists like. But some are
trying to find a way to
measure it. During a symposium Thursday at the American Psychiatric Association
convention, Dr. Michael Welner,
a forensic psychiatrist, asked more than 120 psychiatrists to help create a depravity scale
which could be used by
the courts to judge criminals. Every day, judges ask juries to decide whether crimes are
heinous, atrocious,
cruel, outrageous, wanton, vile or inhuman, aggravating factors which can increase
sentences and even lead
to the death penalty in some states. But there are no universal standards to define such
terms, Welner told
the overflow audience. The interpretations often depend on judges' & jurors'
emotions & biases, and
politics or media attention can influence a prosecutor to seek the death penalty, he said.
In his effort to create a scale to measure depravity in defendants, Welner, who has
testified as both a
prosecution & defense witness, created a list of 26 indications of intent, actions and
attitudes which could
be used to rate crimes.
Among the intents are whether the person meant to cause emotional trauma, cause
permanent disfigurement,
or terrorize or target the helpless. Actions include whether an attack was unrelenting or
the attacker prolonged
the victim's suffering. Attitudes include blaming the victim, having disrespect for the victim
or taking
satisfaction in the crime. Welner is asking judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys,
psychiatrists and
theologians to go to his website & rate each indicator for whether they believe it is
especially, somewhat,
or not at all representative of depravity. The object is to find indicators which all or most
experts agree on, a
"consensus morality" which could be used in court.
Thursday's symposium ¹, titled "How
Psychiatry Defines
Evil," was held on the final evening of the convention. Dr. Michael Stone of Columbia
University also showed
slides of nearly three dozen killers & others whom he considers evil. A woman who
burned one of her
three daughters alive and starved another to death was "at the extreme edge of evil
… one of the most
clearly evil persons" of more than 400 whose biographies he has read, Stone said.
However, he added that
"the bulk of evil on a world scale is committed by ideologues & their followers." Wars
&
persecutions, from the Spanish Inquisition to the fighting in Bosnia, show people are
capable of "bottomless
cruelty to those outside the tribe, especially in times of hardship & hunger," he said.
Welner also discussed other research that has highlighted problems with trying to
measure depravity in
criminals. For example, some traits associated with people who cannibalize, mutilate or
torture their victims
are also found in people who don't commit such crimes. Dr. Cleo Van Velsen, a forensic
psychiatrist from
London who was in the audience, said another challenge is determining why people
commit acts that can be
described as evil. "We know they exist, but not why they are produced," she said. Dr. John
L. Young of New
Haven, Connecticut said he found "depravity" a more acceptable term than "evil." Trying to
create a fairer,
more reliable measurement for a word used in court is one thing, he said, but "I'm not holy
enough, not
saintly or godly enough to tamper with evil."
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