Nature vs. Nurture Research Paper
Children's mental health issues continue to increase, from “11.93% to 12.63%” (State of Mental) over the past few years. Mental health issues are a plague that is sweeping the nation. “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.” (Dumbledore). Some people say if you do not have a mental illness, then you have bigger issues than mental health. How many more lives will be ruined because of mental illness causing self-harm and harm to others. Many children grow up with many problems and most of those people do not end up having major psychological problems, but the few that grow up with a slacking parental role that sets up children to crack under pressure.
Nature vs. nurture are often used to decide what could have impacted someone to do something that was seen as unordinary. Nature is based on the idea that people biologically and passed down by genes. Nurture is referred to as taught by the way they grew up and how it changed them. Of Course, these two factors feed off of each other and will end up being worse and worse the more you were to have.
John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer that molested, tortured, and murdered many men. “He was convicted for sexually assaulting and murdering 33 teenage boys and young men”.(famous) The Late 1970s he was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of 12 men. Known for his cruelty and sexual depravity, he himself had been a victim of sexual assault and physical violence as a young boy. John Gacy inward a difficult childhood, due to growing up with this abusive father of his. In the early 1970s, Gacy began to lure teenage boys and young men back to his house to sexually assault then brutally take their lives. Jack McCoy was Gacy's first victim, he was a 15-year-old boy and was spotted by Gacy. Gacy told Jack he could stay at his house for the night because he needed a place to stay. Jack was making breakfast for Gacy out of gratitude and he walked in Gacy's room to wake him and give him the food, he took a knife with him. Gacy got the knife from jack and stabbed jack in the chest until he stopped breathing. John made a construction company he hired young men front the ages 15 to 18. Most of these employees became victims of his horrible killing spree. When gacy’s victims did not listen to him he would use a chemical called chloroform and would knock them out so he could do unspeakable things to them. He would try demonstrating a magic trick and they would end up restricted and hopeless. Gacy would gag them and basically turn them into sex toys by raping them. Gacy suffered from a rare heart condition and could not play sports because of this condition. He became fat and uncoordinated, he was often made fun of for this by neighbors and bullies. His father’s abusive behavior worsened over a long period of time and Gacy left home tired of all the trouble.
When determining if an individual is born evil or made evil, their childhood should be looked at by specialists instead of just the genes. Considering genes determines physical appearances, not experiences. Genes also do not control how parents act around and towards their children. However, Gacy was bullied for being overweight that was caused by his heart problem that was caused by his genes.
Gacy was not born with any obvious psychotic problem passed down by genes, but he had a heart problem that led to an emotionally traumatic experience that turned him insane. Gacy’s genes and no correlation to his abusive father that was not put to jail for his domestic violence. Mr. Gacy taught him when he was growing up that it was morally correct or ok to bring harm to others. The average human being realizes that harming people is horrible and not normal. Yes, Gacy’s heart problem did lead to him being insane, however, the heart problem had no correlation to his sanity. In this case, Gacy was born normal and turned to evil by the torture that his childhood put him through.
Perry Smith murdered four people in a small town. Perry was raised in Huntington, Nevada with an abusive family. Perry was trying to get money after getting out of jail. His friend, Dick, was an inmate with Perry and they planned to rob a family that had money to get their lives back together. The two of them to get out of jail and go to this house with a shotgun. There were four people in the house at the time. The two of them tied up the four people and started questioning the family. After they found out they had no money he kills all four of them with a shotgun to the head. Perry grew up with an alcoholic mother and a wife beater for a dad. After the mom decided it was not safe and took Perry and his three other siblings to live somewhere else. This has already been a traumatic experience for the whole family and people have needed
Therapy for less. Ms. Smith after a while she decides she it is not worth it anymore and kills herself. Perry and his family went into an orphanage at thirteen. He grew up wetting the bed and was made fun of externally. Racial slurs were thrown at him because he was an Indian. This dwelled oh him his entire life an set a lasting impact on how he acts and processes things in his head. Perry as a young adult acted like a child when brought to hard or unfamiliar situations. “Perry could be such a kid",” always going through phases where he would wet the bed and cry a lot. (Dick) Dick would walk in and see perry sucking on his thumb and crying over his treasure guides. Perry obviously had many mental deficiencies but to this magnitude is quite astounding. Perry got in a tragic motorcycle accident and to deal with the pain he ends up getting addicted to aspirin. People that turn to drugs and get addicted are normally depressed and are just looking for a way to fix themselves.
Perry never had any genetics that was seen as bad other than his smaller stature. Perry was traumatized by his childhood and could not find a way to fix it. After a while of torture, he found aspirin and it helped ease the physical pain but it got to a point of he depended on them and this is never good. Perry was never taught to be able to deal with these situations, he was always seen as the weird kid that pees every time he went to sleep. For that reason, no one gave him a chance. Perry was taught that people are not the same as him and he was different and this made all the difference when he decided to kill those people.
Dick was the exact opposite. He grew up with a great family and was expected to do great things. Dick was handsome with all the ladies and the friends. Dicks parents never would have guessed that he was, the way that he was. The parents said that the car crash he got into was the reason he as insane. This doesn't make sense because Dick was always a troubled kid and did not follow the rules. He was sincererly mad at himself for being a pedifile but he could not stop himself. From birth, he did not have a level head and it impacted his daily life. If the family stopped enabling him it might have been a different outcome.
Nature vs. Nurture is hard to decide on because it is always on a spectrum and one always influences the other. Gacy and Perry were normal people that could have gone and done great things, but the way they were brought up destroyed every hope of that. Dick was born in this “like to watch the world burn” mindset. If Dick was nurtured into not being insane and got therapy it would have been a very different outcome.
