Page 39 - Aug Sept 2016
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Crypto-Criminology: The Gothic Nature of Crime
human behavior. Confused by one theoretical constructs after another, we reach
for myth, magic and metaphor to express our frustrations in finding the ultimate
answer. And still, we have to accept that human evil stems from human thinking.
A medieval realm cloaks the desires, motive and intentions of the things we do.
At the same time, various “schools of thought” contend with controversial notions
pertaining to core essence of human beings. Such is the sensual realm of good and
evil, vice and morality, normal and abnormal, natural and deviant. Wickedness,
malevolence and immorality touch every level of society. Human hypocrisy
colludes to cover and conceal exposing truths. Contemporary explanations of
criminal behavior have failed, yet some cling to simplistic notions and deceptively
easy solutions. Fad, fashion and quick fix foster the inadequacy of effective
explanations. From biological theories to sociological configurations, the search for
precise determinants of our criminal nature cannot deduce a specificity of factors.
“Crypto-Criminology takes us into these mental archives where
we’ve filed our allegorical enchantments. The cryptic logic, by
which we rationalize, excuse and mitigate atrocities, resides in this
subconscious surreal realm of belief.”
Instead, what we have is a multiplicity of academic theories subject to wide
speculation. We’re left with stumbling in pursuing the darkness of human
inclinations. Thus, we put on our black capes, grab crucifixes and holy water.
Pick up wooden stakes and load silver bullets to become “mind hunters” to “hunt
monsters”. To which, we discover the complications of the human safari. Hiding in
the psychic landscape is the brain’s creativity, which is an illusion for mysterious
cryptic cerebral processes.
Within the complexity of human behavior, resides the potential for criminality in all
of us. Influential in this process of individual ideation, is the role of religious beliefs
and associated philosophical ideologies. All over the world, people of different
faiths, practices and rituals project personifications of evil, devils and demons. It is
reflective in the expressions of our assorted world-view. We relish in seeing badness
on the outside and never on the inside. Our mental housing keeping is very private.
Thus, seeing God and Satan in mortal combat mirrors the Jekyll-Hyde constructs
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