Broken Moral Compass

By Mark Tayler

t can be hard to
comprehend evil
when it is

perpetrated at a young
age, yet stories abound.
Just a few examples are
Jordan Brown, age 11,
who shot his fathers
pregnant girlfriend in

youth under juvenile

Can
children
be
psychopaths?
According to the Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
Murder
committed
by
teens
increased by 172% from 1986 to 1994.
Currently, more than 31 million
youth are under juvenile court
jurisdiction. (Hockenberry) These
adolescents often lack empathy,
resulting in harm of self, harm of
others, and property destruction. How
do we address this problem of the
broken Moral Compass?

court jurisdiction. Of
these youth, 79 percent
were between the ages
of 10 and 15, 12 percent
were age 16 and 8
percent were age 17.
(Hockenberry)
These numbers

the back of the head while she was lying in

reveal a disturbing truth: many young

bed, Cindy Collier and Shirely Wolf, ages

adolescents prey on society. These young

15 and 14, who stumbled upon an 85 year

individuals have a broken moral compass.

old woman and between the two shoved her

They are overly aggressive, lack empathy,

to the ground and repeatedly stabbed her

are willing to destroy property, hurt others,

with a butchers knife. (JrDuvall)

Fortunately, not all stories are so

Figure 1: 1:
Proportions
of Juvenile
Arrests involving
Younger
than 13 in
Figure
Proportions
of Juvenile
ArrestsPersons
Involving
Persons
2011

Younger than 13 in 2011

extreme, but a quick glimpse at statistics

from The Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention tells us that in
2011 there were more that 31million

Source Snyder 2014

and hurt themselves. Acts such as these are

the body and then eventually form a

of a psychopathic, which is defined by

complex ball of firing neurons. This

William Hirstein in his article, What is a

becomes the soft wiring of the brain, and is

Psychopath? as being callous and showing

largely determined by genetics. DNA,

a lack of empathy, traits which the PPI

which is completely out of a persons

describes as coldheartedness.

control, determines traits which include

Is it

possible for children to be psychopaths?

cognitive, emotional, and physical abilities.

Are children without innate empathy? The

Mixed within these abilities is the crucial

answer is yes!

ability to empathize. This ability combined

with how a person processes information

Soft Wiring of the Brain

determines behavior. Basically, a person is

genetically wired to think and feel a certain

Now the questions become: What

way, which will determine how they act.

creates children like this? What can be

done about a childs broken moral

Photo
Photo
by from"Your
"Your Child,
Child,
the Psychopath."
the Psychopath."
Digital
Photo Parent.

compasses?
To address the idea of What
creates children like this? we must
consider the natural construction of the
human body. Given the idea of
physicalism, which reminds us that all

How the brain is soft wired is only

things are composed of material, every

part of a persons development. Based on

person is a construct of his environment and

the idea of determinism, which is the belief

the natural laws he is subject to. For

that all events are caused by events that

humans, it begins with atoms that make up

happened before, the human body is a

complex input and output machine. A

simply the ability to judge the difference

stimulus enters the brain, responds to how it

between right and wrong.

was programmed from previous stimuli, and

kicks out a response.

When you combine the concepts of

physicialsm and determinism, which is more
commonly called the
nature and nurture
argument, the whole
person takes shape.
The soft wired brain
makes decisions based
on the way it is built.
Those decisions
become a persons

Since the brain is plastic and forms

pattern of behavior, and those behaviors can

pathways based on experience, continuous

impact and make changes in the soft wiring.

repetitive stimuli can have an effect on the

For most, this natural wiring leads to

soft wiring, which in turn can largely affect

an ability to show empathy. Those with this

the ability to empathize. This ability to

ability live life being able to judge what will

understand and feel the effect ones actions

harm others, and they generally do what

have upon others is one of the vital aspects

they know is best. That ability to show

of personal growth that also contributes to a

empathy and distinguish right from wrong

successful society. This empathy is then

reinforces the natural soft wiring of the

reflected in a persons morality, which is

brain, and the empathic cycle leading to

strong moral development continues.

These youth, as Daniel Goleman

The Broken Moral Compass

There are some individuals that start
out with different wiring, which decreases
the ability to feel empathy or to make a
distinction between right and wrong. These
individuals often learn to act out, to hurt
themselves, others, and property. These
negative behaviors in turn affect the soft
wiring of the brain. In other words, the
brain is abnormally wired to lack empathy
and the corresponding pattern of behavior
leads neurons to respond to stress in
maladaptive and often violent ways. This
brings us back to the problem: a group of
young individuals with a broken moral
compass.

points out in the article Educated Heart,

reflect the growth of the problem starting at
a young age. He states, that This damaged
empathy may add to the risk that a child will
follow the prototypical life trajectory that
leads to criminal violence. That arc,
longitudinal data show, begins with children
who are already aggressive and hard to
handle in the first and second grade and
whose troublemaking adds to the difficulties
they have as students. By fourth or fifth
grade, these kids--now seen by peers as
bullies and by teachers as "difficult"--are
friendless and starting to fail school. So
the effects of abnormal wiring often start at
a very young age, are perpetuated with
continued negative behavior,
and those negative behaviors
will continue to grow with the
child. In order to help these
children it is important to first
recognize the problem and

Photo by Pappas, "Psychopathic Traits Seen

in Children's Brains."

acknowledge that it is present at a young

empathy among them. They are genetically

age.

predisposed towards violent outbursts and

likely have an underdeveloped frontal lobe,

Asking Why?
Since a young child with a broken
moral compass may be demonstrating

potentially contributing to the lack of

empathy.
With that final why in regards to

behaviors such as arm cutting, repeatedly

the childs cognitive abilities, answers can

getting into fights at school, taking a gun to

start to form explaining why we do what

a friends house and threatening to shoot

we do. The childs lack of cognitive

them, among many others, it is important to

abilities suggests that psychopathy is a mere

consider that these are behaviors of children

expression of a childs genetic makeup, and

who are frustrated or angry and are

all these violent behaviors become nothing

displaying emotions in an unhealthy manner.

more than a disorder. This opens up new

Such unhealthy displays of emotion beg the

approaches and ways to understand the child

question why, especially when a child

that may help them. There is hope that we

without a moral compass acts out with

can work with this evil disorder and give

extreme and sometimes disturbing behaviors

young adolescents who are affected a

as if they are natural.

chance.

We must not only ask why a child is

engaging in the negative behaviors, but also
why they are unable to express emotions in a
healthier manner. By digging deeper, it is
possible to recognize that they are soft wired
with a lack of specific cognitive abilities,

Empathy Training as the Solution

Having established that psychopathy
is a disorder of the mind, the question
becomes how to help the affected individual.

University Medical Center in Illinois, An

emotionally healthy child is active and
curious about the world. These children are
able to make and keep friends; engage in
successful learning; regulate their emotions,
i.e., soothe themselves when angry or upset
and accept soothing from others, as well as
delay gratification of their needs. These
children interact well with the larger
Photo by: "What Are We Teaching Our Children?" Evolutionary
Parenting Where History And Science Meet Parenting

community, whether that community is the

The answer is to teach them. Since the brain

family, the school, or the larger world. They
is soft wired, or preconditioned, to respond
feel positively about their bodies, evaluating
in a certain way, and the behaviors then
themselves in terms of what they can do
reinforce and change the wiring of the brain,
rather than how they look. Using those
we can teach new behaviors and responses,
guide lines, children can be taught and those
including empathy, understanding of
positive behaviors reinforced. In doing so,
emotion, and how to manage feelings.
the soft wiring of the brain can be changed.
In order to figure out how to change
This then requires a system in place
the soft wiring of a young mind, we should
that can recognize a child with a broken
start with examining a child that can express
moral compass. To develop that system,
their emotions appropriately. According to
parents and teachers need to be trained to
Kim Dell'Angela, who is a child
first recognize the problem and then have
psychologist and assistant professor in the
training on empathic, social and emotional
department of pediatrics at Loyola
teaching techniques. Daniel Goleman states

this goal in the Educated Heart, The goal is

Following empathy fitness, we need

to raise the level of social and emotional

to be teaching self-awareness and

competence in children as part of their

temperance of emotions. First self-

regular education. The power within this

awareness, since nothing can change if we

goal is to raise children who have emotional

do not understand the root of the problem.

competence and the ability for empathy. For

This is essential to children, since they need

those that do not have those abilities, which

to understand and be aware of their personal

in later life is correlated with criminal

emotional triggers.

sociopaths, rapists, and child molesters, we

self-awareness, we should be teaching

can start to train the young mind and

temperance of emotion. A child needs to

strongly affect the soft wiring of the

self-regulate some of their impulses, such as

adolescent mind. This is the goal that we

sexual desire, vanity, and anger. This gives

should all be striving for, for it has a chance

them the ability to be in control over their

to reduce criminal behaviors and allow all

emotional responses. With these two

children the chance at an emotionally

combined, self-awareness and temperance of

healthy and rich life.

emotion, a child can have an emotionally

There are a few essentials of this

emotional fitness goal. At the lead is

In conjunction with

rich life, and hopefully the tools to never

suppress and hold in emotions.

empathy competence, for nothing is more

important than being able to understand how
another person feels. Understanding the
pain and pleasure of others directly affects
our morality.

Children can be Psychopaths, but

there is hope.
When the dust settles, we should all
be striving for our children to be whole. For
most young children, empathy and
emotional fitness is natural and they will

glide through that aspect of

life. For some, however,
such as those with a broken
moral compass due the lack

Children can be psychopaths. Once

recognized, we can address the
problem and get teachers, parents, and
society to start challenging the
disorder and help the young mind.

of appropriate wiring in the brain, empathy

and emotional temperance is missing. For

children may be soft

wired with the
inability for
empathy or may

have the homicidal gene.

Children can be psychopaths. Once

these children, we need to recognize the

recognized, we can address the problem and

problem, even if means coming to terms

get teachers, parents, and society to start

with the idea that ones child has

challenging the disorder and help the young

psychopath disorder. Nothing can happen

mind. It begins with empathy training to

if we dont recognize the problem, but we

start changing the cycle by putting repeated

cannot simply stop there. That is only

stimulus on the brain and can change the

putting a Band-Aid on the problem. We

soft wiring of a psychopath.

need to dig deeper, keep asking why?, and

come to terms with the fact that some

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