The Monstrous Crimes Seen Today

The crimes committed nowadays against children, teen-agers and youths in different cities across the United States is alarming, inconceivable in light of American traditions that do not exclude, of course, this type of crimes but to a much lesser degree. Therefore, it is advisable that experts in social psychology, criminology and psychiatry, not to mention other branches of knowledge, study the characteristics that determine these crimes that sometimes are indescribable in their monstrosity. To this must be added that these crimes are not only happening against teen-agers and youths, but also against older individuals. The criminals, of course, must have a terrible and often unknown background. The origin of these crimes is not necessarily recent, but might stem from old behavioral patterns that were covered up or unduly tolerated by society and the authorities.

In addition to the mentioned specializations, there should be consultations with moralists because, certainly, morality or, rather, the lack of morality, be it because of immorality or amorality, is a fundamental factor in these crimes. Immorality is what is done by individuals who know what morality is and violate it. Amorality refers to those who do not know what morality is and, therefore, neither practice nor respect it.

It is surprising – to somehow describe it – to see what revolves around these terrible crimes perpetrated by children, teen-agers and youths, as well as by adults of all ages, even older people, because they are totally revolting, incompatible with the essences of normal human sensibility. No extraordinary imagination is needed to know that this behavior and these feelings are the result of social irresponsibility on the part of these criminals and, in a way, on the part of the environment where they live.

Some people say that all these things are not new, that what is new is the modern means available to publicize these crimes. And although there is some truth in this, there is no reasonable sense of proportion between what could have happened in the past and the horrific things seen today. What is happening now seems to be the product of an over-active imagination determined to discover monstrosities that have not been committed but that take life in the work of a distasteful novelist who makes things up that might have some possibility of materializing. However, it is terrible to confirm that this is not fiction, but a macabre reality.