Did you know there is no such thing as a (violent) crime of passion? Up until 1980 it was widely believed that people went crazy and committed violent acts. They were out of their mind and this thing happened. They killed someone or whatever. Many people still believe this and if I ever sit on a jury with one of them I will be able to disabuse them of this notion because I am familiar with the Lonnie Athens work.
In the late 70’s Lonnie Athens ran around and interviewed violent criminals in prison and one of the things he discovered was that they knew exactly what they were doing. And I admire Athens. It’s not anyone who can just waltz into a prison and get these dudes to talk to them with any kind of candor. As a matter of fact, Athens risked his life for this research which he published in 1980 in his book, “The Creation Of Dangerous Violent Criminals.
Turns out the thought process that leads a violent criminal to commit the act does not vary from criminal to criminal. When talking about their crimes, the offenders all sound like this:
“Well at first I was just going to do x,y, and z, bust him/her up a little…”
and then they shift, finding justification for what they are about to do:
"But then she did a, b, c… " or "But then I started thinking about last week or last month…"
And they come to their conclusion.
"And at that point I decided I should just kill him/her..."
It is shocking how utterly cognizant these people are of what they are doing, especially when you contrast it with the “crime of passion” idea which it turns out is a big myth!
I imagine (Neptune) that the idea of people committing violent crimes in some kind of altered state it is our collective (Pluto) defense (Saturn) against reality (Saturn).
I also think as Saturn moves out from its opposition with Neptune begining this month we will become aware of these type defenses… and when Pluto goes into Capricorn in 2008 our defenses will fall.
Article comments
1 - Gideon Addington
Well, that's also after the fact. I would agree crimes of passion are probably less real than they are invoked, but humans are not particularly rational to begin with. Neuro-psychology has came up with some very interesting ideas regarding the things we do and why we do them - and it is kind of disturbing.
But a lot of it is just a rehash of Hume, as well. We are not rational. We can try to be, and I believe this helps train our emotional/animal nature perhaps... but a lot of what we do happens before we think about it, in particular for such incidents as you discuss. Rationalization happens after, split seconds often.
It's all new, however.. so who knows. I'm only casually acquainted with the material.