RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
What Makes a Killer
Do you ever think about how a human is capable of committing such horrendous crimes with no remorse whatsoever? In today’s society alone 1 in 4 people are likely to commit a crime and people are starting to wonder if their genetic makeup is to blame or the environment that they were raised in is the corporate. In the article “Into the mind of a killer” by Alison Abbott explores the possibilities of a human being a victim to either environmental issues or mental issues. Abbott explains what makes a human go as far as killing another person without feeling no type of empathy or judgment what’s so ever and what is to blame. She is a senior European correspondent in Nature’s industry which allows the article to be classified as a scholarly article that can be trusted as a credible source.
Well in the article “Into the Mind of a Killer ” they focus on what really goes on in a criminal’s mind. What is it that forces them to follow up with such behavior without no remorse? They battle the question, are criminals born or made. If their genetic make up is the reason behind their mental break or if their environment is what leads them down such a hateful path. This allows the audience to be the general public since everyone should be informed as to what makes a human kill another person but mostly criminal psychology students interested in how the killer mind works considering there are many points in the article where it specifies this “ They hope that these studies will lead to a fundamental biological understanding of psychopathy, …”. Abbott’s language in this also shows how the audience could range from the general public to psychology students considering every scientific term she broke down and explained what it meant. This means that anyone without a psychology background would be able to read her article without any confusion. This allows the article to branch out to many different audiences but mainly focusing on the students studying criminal psychology since its a trustworthy article that provides multiple graphs, pictures, and data from multiple studies which can help with their own research.
In the article Abbott goes on to explain how this question is one of the most controversial topics in neuroscience as of right now. This explains the purpose of the article which is to further inform the public of what truly makes a killer. It also gives the article a tone of urgency since it’s one of the most talked about topics of our society allowing the genre to be informative because Abbott is trying to inform the public of what is going on with our society as of right now “As it is clear that brain dysfunction can cause abnormal social behaviour, it is important for scientists to address the issue,”. Abbott provides multiple positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain of a murderer compared to a non harmful person’s brain and you can clearly see the difference between the two, which leads us to believe that killers are born instead of made. In the scan you can see the damaged areas including the amygdala, which is the main area that controls the processing of emotion and the orbitofrontal cortex, which control the processing of thinking. As stated in the article, with these two damaged it leads to the perfect killer, no emotion and no amount of overthinking allowing them to commit a murder with out no emotion or rational thought “The two theories may not be mutually exclusive, Blair points out, as the orbitofrontal cortex, which does the ‘thinking’, and the amygdala, which does the ‘feeling’, are highly interconnected.”
Abbott later on in the article explains how a person who has committed murder is most likely to be suffering from schizophrenia or are psychopathys“Today, many psychiatrists accept that some people who fall foul of the criminal justice system suffer from a condition — psychopathy — that is as much an illness as, for example, schizophrenia.” This shows the stance that Abbott is taking since she is agreeing with the sense that killers are born instead of made. She provides enough evidence that allows the audience to agree with her “Environmental factors may help to determine whether this ‘illness’ is expressed in the form of violent, criminal behaviour, but a growing number of experts argue that the underlying condition is biological.” A killer is born and not made. There is scientific evidence proving that every killer in a way is suffering from a genetic disorder that allows them to kill without feeling anything what’s so ever.
The article “Into The Mind of a Killer” by Allison Abbott is a very informative piece of text that allows the reader to further understand what goes on in the minds of those in society that don’t fit in, those who are just simply driven by certain mental disorders which soon become the oppressed in our society based on their actions “This is really the study of the dark side of human nature”. The killer mind is very complex which probably still holds multiple secret discoveries but considering they were born this way and not made makes you feel some type of empathy for them because in reality they never had a chance to be a “normal” functioning human. Allison Abbott proved how the killer mind works, how it processes which allows one to feel one step closer in trying to help these certain individuals overcome their mind prison which is just their genetic makeup fighting against them.
Work Cited
Abbott, Alison. “Into the Mind of a Killer .” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 15 Mar. 2001, www-nature-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/articles/35066717.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Social Media Ban
Social media has easily embedded itself in our daily lives and has become the modern day drug of our society. Everywhere you look someone is on their phone either swiping right for new relationship matches or adding a picture of their untouched meals to their profile pages. These sites have become the new obsession of our society that are leading us into one of history’s biggest downfalls. Social media has been linked to personality and brain disorders, reason for the alter in children’s brains and behavior, making them more prone to depression; and for facilitating cyberbullying leading to adjustment in societal norms. Since the first launch of social media, recent studies discovered that longer exposure to social media sites tend to lead to symptoms of social isolation, body dysmorphia, and depression among U.S. young adults.
In the article “Social Media and Adolescent wellbeing” by Paul Best and Brian Taylor they explain how in our new generation we are starting to push our youth into a more digital world which is starting to leave an impact on our future generation. Best and Taylor stated “In addition, it has been suggested that children today require more support, training and coping skills to prepare them for a more complex and technologically advanced society”. Best and Taylor describe the obsession that most adolescents have with social media are starting to leave a permanent effect on its users. Spending a great amount of time on social media can put a major setback on a person’s social skills considering there is no face to face contact leading to great deal of social isolation. Many people base their lives on unrealistic views formed by the hatred clouding social media pushing them to feel jealous, depressed, or maybe even feel suicidal about their own life considering it is not as “perfect” as those they see on their social media pages. As stated in the article “Impact of social media on the health of children and young people” by Deborah Richards, “Other studies have shown that young people who use Facebook more often show narcissistic tendencies and that social media encourages young people to be ‘loners’ ” it is glorified to isolate yourself from others on these platforms which leads to major issues and setbacks of one’s own social skills. In addition to social isolation, social media has also been found to be associated with the degradation of one’s self-image. Instagram usage was associated with greater concern about body image and social acceptance.
Not only does social media strip us of our mental health but it also goes as far to make us change ourselves physically. As of 2019 more than half of app users have gotten physical alterations done to themselves to fit into these “social norms” that social media influencers have contributed to greatly. Deborah Richards claims in her article how rates of cosmetic surgery are increasing across the world thanks to media influencers on these apps like instagram, where there are guidelines to be considered an “IG Baddie” a popular, good-looking individual with a high number of followers. In the article “ Impact of social media on the health of children and young people” Richards states “The study reported that ‘self‐esteem was negatively related to frequency of status updates, Facebook intensity and update intensity, suggesting that the more frequently people go on Facebook and update their status and the more meaning they attribute to having Facebook/status updates in their lives, the lower their self‐esteem’ ”. This is leading to more than half of social media users to be branded with body dysmorphia. We now live in a society where it’s all led by the internet, apps that set a certain image for users to follow and if one dares not to they are shamed and initially cyber bullied into emotional problems, body dysmorphia, low levels of self-esteem , and the desire to have plastic surgery. Cyberbullying has helped tremendously in enforcing certain images upon our society that are slowly peeling away at who we truly are as a person and encouraging depression.
The article “ Is physical inactivity associated with depressive symptoms among adolescents with high screen time?” by Asaduzzaman Khan discusses the importance of acknowledging the increase of depression among our upcoming generation. In the article Khan makes sure to identify the colporate behind the incline of adolescents committing suicide which is linked to depression from these social media apps. About 25% of social media users mainly adolescents ages 11-19 have reported delirious depressive symptoms associated with high screen time. The suicide rates amoung teens have increased by 50% since the start of social media, with cyberbulling being the colporate. Best and Taylor also discusses how teens are more likely to express themselves online which can lead to a number of different types of backlash which leads teens to go into a reserved depressive form that sooner or later becomes suicidal thoughts “The literature suggests that teens are more willing to disclose personal information online and, in general, displayed more emotionally empathic online communication than adults”. Cyberbullying is one of the main leading reasons behind suicides. Khan expressed “Odds of depression was double for high screen time with insufficient activity.” With this being said kids are starting to become addicted to the gratification that comes with having these social platforms which can quickly turn into bashing others online resulting in cyberbullying, concluding in them harming multiple parts in their developing brain and behaviors.
In the end, social media has been the main leading cause of mental illness and has created a free space to allow mental illness to skyrocket. These social networking sites have done a huge harm in our modern day society. It has established certain “social norms” that in the end have caused a great deal of not only mental illnesses but physical and permanent ones as well.
Work Cited
Best , Paul, and Brian Taylor . “Online Communication, Social Media and Adolescent Wellbeing: A Systematic Narrative Review.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, June 2014, www-sciencedirect-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/science/article/pii/S0190740914000693?via%3Dihub.
Khan , Asaduzzaman. “Shibboleth Authentication Request.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 3 Jan. 2017, www-clinicalkey-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccn.cuny.edu/#!/content/playContent/1-s2.0-S1755296617300078?returnurl=null&referrer=null.
Richards, Deborah. “Impact of Social Media on the Health of Children and Young People.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 26 Nov. 2015, onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/full/10.1111/jpc.13023.
