Natural born killer?
WHEN it comes to those who commit murder, it can seem so unfathomable just how someone could deliberately take another person’s life, that people often declare the killer was “born evil”.
This new three-part series uses ground-breaking biological and psychological investigations to find out if, in fact, some people could be predisposed to kill.
Could people’s genes, brain structure and chemistry – after being subjected to certain social and environmental conditions – make their violent behaviour almost inevitable?
The three people that are volunteering to subject themselves to these scientific tests are all convicted murderers.
The first is John Massey, Britain’s longest-serving murderer, who spent 43 years in prison after he shot and killed a nightclub bouncer in 1975.
Neurocriminologist Professor Adrian Raine and forensic psychologist Dr Vicky Thakordas-Desai spent three weeks with John, conducting a series of brain scans, genetic tests and interviews, to learn if he had signs of the biological and psychological risk factors that could help determine if he truly had control over his actions that fateful night, or if it was always inevitable that he would kill.
Understandably, as it deals with criminals’ culpability, this is controversial research.
But the professor – who has more than 40 years’ experience working with murderers all across the globe – also believes it could be used to help predict criminal behaviour and that intervention with those people identified as having these risk factors could prevent their behaviour becoming deadly.