Thank you very much!
I think assuming that everybody who commits violent acts is mentally ill is very stigmatising. Of course some of those who commit these acts certainly are, but a striking majority aren’t. When referring to serial killers, it all boils down to the nature vs nurture debate. Some are a product of their environment - Henry Lee Lucas, for example, had a very domineering mother who would physically and emotionally abuse him. She was a prostitute and made him watch her with her clients, she would dress him up as a girl, and she would kill any pet he tried to keep. Then it’s just in the biology of some - David Berkowitz, for example, was adopted by two loving parents who took him on as their own child and he had a relatively normal childhood. It’s a combination of different factors including environment, biology, and just general circumstances in life.
Bad upbringings or mental illness is an easy explanation as to why people commit violent acts but the notion that people can commit these acts for no reason other than because they want to is unsettling and it’s why people like to just fob it off as “oh, they’re pure evil.” However, a massive mistake people make is assuming that only inhuman, demonic, monsters are capable of committing violent acts. Nobody is 100% evil. People dehumanise these sorts of people to reassure themselves that “normal” human beings like you or I are incapable of doing monstrous things. It makes people feel more comfortable because it implies that there is a separation between us and them - a separation between us “normal” humans and the “monsters” that commit heinous acts, when in reality, there isn’t much of a difference. Everybody has the ability to commit evil acts. Thankfully, most of us don’t want to.
