Jonathan H. Pincus
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By: W. W. Norton & Company
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
A Very Fine Effort 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 19 people found this review helpful.
The point of this fairly slim volume is to convince the reader that many (perhaps the vast majority) of our most dangerous criminals have neurologic impairments, and that brain dysfunction, along with child abuse and paranoid thinking, is at the heart of much violent behavior. This is not an entirely new message, but it is one Pincus approaches with a great deal of authority -- he's a professor of Neurology at Georgetown, was formerly at Yale and has studied dozens of death row prisoners along with his colleague Dorothy Ortnow Lewis.Dr. Pincus clearly decided not to risk alienating readers with scientific terminology or complex explanations of brain physiology. The book follows the familiar "casebook" true crime format used by various ex-FBI profilers, coroners, and cops. Most chapters focus on a particular criminal Pincus had dealings with (many of them in his role as an expert witness) and what that criminal's life story shows about the origins of homicidal violence.
The coversational writing style (and oddly cheery alliterative chapter titles) stand in contrast to the horrific nature of much of the material. The crime scene details will be familiar to any reasonably hardened reader in the literature. What really stood out for me was the descriptions of childhood abuse endured by many of the perpetrators Pincus has studied. As a former inner-city teacher, I taught kids from pretty screwed up homes, and had some friends from abusive families while growing up. But the stories Pincus recounts (corroborated by siblings and others) remind us that there is almost no downward limit to the depths of human depravity.
What's rather odd about all the better works in the study of violence and homicide is the sense that this field is under-funded, under-appreciated and obscure. Pincus and other pioneers in the field have answered some important questions, but their work raises hundreds more. If, say one percent of the money our government has spent trying to prove that marijuana is dangerous were instead spent on studying the roots of violence, perhaps we'd have more answers.
Editorial Review:
Neurologist, Dr Jonathan Pincus examined and probed into the family and medical history of numerous serial killers and other violent criminals to analyze what creates and triggers the violent instinct. He discovered that virtually all suffered severe abuse as a child, as well as brain damage and mental illness. In these terrifying stories Pincus concludes that violent criminal behaviour is the product of a dysfunctional brain coupled with an abusive environment. focusing on these critical factors, how can we prevent the development of potentially violent persons from a young age before the damage becomes irreversable? And how do we evaluate the chances of rehabilitation?
