In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Essay

  In Cold Blood: A True Account of Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote details the social arena that molded Dick Hickock and Perry Smith into criminals and killers.   The author wrote of how Hickock was brought up in a loving home with a stable family but suffered from mental illness.   Perry on the other hand, had alcoholic parents in a very unloving atmosphere, uneducated and suffered from depression.   Each was influenced by society differently but the result was the same.   The author details their stories from the beginning of their criminal history up to their execution for the murder of the Clutter family.   The question is, was Perry a â€Å"natural born killer†. In an article in Psychology Today there is evidence that activity or lack of in the prefrontal cortex of the brain region are associated with acts of murder.   This prefrontal cortex activity is also associated with a wide range of behaviors such as risk taking, rule breaking, aggression and impulsivity that can lead to violence.   This evidence has a great value in maybe creating a way for society to possibly point out problem individuals and possible treatment or prevention of criminal activity such as murder.   The article goes on to say that perhaps this is a way to point to biological differences or the possibility of natural born killers (Raine 10). In some ways Truman Capote could relate to Perry because both had terrible experiences growing up. The author was intrigued as to why Perry would go on to kill and he didn’t. Capote wrote that possible social consequences made the difference possibly grooming Perry to be a killer and some professionals agree sociologist are not satisfied with the explanations that are rooted in biology and personality.   They point to the perspective of symbolic interaction that each of us interprets life through symbols that we learn (Henslin 133).   Sociologist Edwin Sutherland stressed that people learn deviance.   He uses the term differential association to indicate that we learn to deviate or to conform to society’s norms mostly by the people we associate with.   But if this is correct then why does some with the same interaction kill and others do not?   In my opinion there are people who are born natural killers.   It is something that is innate within some individuals and is nurtured by society to its final display.   In my belief some individuals will be born a killer and some will not.   Society takes this innate trait and shapes them even more, or even less, towards the direction of their innate features.   The degree of their actions is my proof.   Take hunting some individuals can hunt and some cannot.   This is an example of the innate trait for killing expressed in killing for food rather than killing another human. Degree is how society grooms each killer, the hunter and the murderer, to their final â€Å"ends†.   Because traits are passed from parent to child that is why some societies are prone to have more killers than others and what degree the acts are committed is influenced by each of the societies they live in.  Ã‚   The degree of the trait is what society uses for determining how wrong the act is and how that individual will be punished.   Evil is solely influenced and decided by the society one lives in.   Killing is inevitable for some individuals; it is to what degree that makes the difference. Reference: Capote, Truman.   In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its    Consequences.   New York: Signet Books, 1965. Henslin, James M.   Essentials of Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach.   Boston:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Allyn and Bacon, 2000. Raine, A.   Natural born Killers?   Psychology Today 28(1), p.10, 1995 Jan/Feb.