Violent crime stirs questions

Reading the story about allegations of a young man’s calculated and cruel murder of his own father was horrifying to me as a 20-year-old woman. It is difficult to imagine that, if the charges against him are true, one of my peers was capable of tying up his father, beating him with a baseball bat in an attempt to get information out of him, and then stabbing him after getting the information he wanted.

I think about the life experiences I’ve had and wonder how, in the same amount of time, another individual could grow into being willing and able to commit such a violent crime, and against their own father.

I wonder whether a person is biologically destined to be a vicious killer or if perhaps there are forces at play greater than his control that can lead him down such a path. Perhaps he had childhood friends who were a bad influence on him, perhaps he watched too many violent television shows or movies, perhaps he was so focused on money and material possessions that he would do anything (robbery and murder included) to get them, or perhaps he didn’t receive enough attention from his family or his teachers, so he lashed out by dropping out of school and partaking in criminal behavior.

I wonder how much of this can be prevented; “if only” is a phrase I find myself utilizing in an attempt to explain such tragedies. Maybe if some of these outside factors had been different, a victim would be alive today. But then again, perhaps in some cases, this brutality is inherent and unavoidable.

Emily Buehler

Libertyville