Anna Antselevich

Mr. Feeley
World Leaders
1 June 2015

Andrew Kehoe, one of Americas most notorious criminals, according to Huffington Post,
said Criminals are made, not born. That is exactly what Dr. Philip Zimbardo tried to prove.
Even though there are many arguments made against this theory, it is the one that makes the most
logical sense. A common counterargument is that some criminals are born with certain mental
illnesses which drive them to do horrible things. This only gets a lot of attention because usually,
if a person with mental illnesses commits a crime, it is a large one that gets headlines. It gets
stuck in consumers heads which they later associate with many other criminals. There was a
study done by the American Psychological Association regarding mental illness and crime. What
they found was that out of 429 crimes and 143 criminals, only 17% of the crimes were directly
related to mental illnesses. There was 3% of crimes because of depression, 4% because of
schizophrenia, and 10% because of bipolar disorder. To this, head researcher Jillian Peterson,
PhD said, The vast majority of people with mental illness are non violent, not criminal and not
dangerous (Mental Illness Not Usually Linked to Crime, Research Finds). She also found that
the criminals with these mental disorders described their behavior as manic during the crime.
Criminal activity is never really a spur of the moment thing. Dr. Peterson found that in
schizophrenic criminals whos crime had been directly related to their condition were already on
edge from before because of the voice in their heads. For criminals without any diagnosed
mental disorders, the crime, or idea of it takes time to develop and there have to be events that
lead up to the ultimate breakdown. Many times these people have a chain of events that makes
them agitated or angry and they lose all sense of logic and/or do not know how to control their

emotions. Andrew Kehoe also is a good example of this. What ultimately made his go off of the
edge was his anger about his financial struggle and the fact that he lost the election for township
clerk. These two things really triggered his bomb-happy tirade on Bath Consolidated School and
his family.

Whenever there is a headline in the news paper of some gruesome crime, readers are
horrified and put on edge. It is hard not to think that there is/was something mentally wrong with
the person committing the crime. Clearly a sane person would never have done such a thing.
However, there may be several factors that can cause a person to do awful thing. It is why
criminals are made. For example, Dr. Philip Zimbardos famous experiment of the
prisoner/prison warden. What Zimbardo did was take regular, ordinary college students and
made half of them prisoners and the other half wardens. The results were absolutely shocking. A
after a while the college students started actually believing they were their roles. Perfectly
normal and sane boys truly started believing that they were jail wardens and prisoners. The
wardens made the prisoners wear hats and dresses with no undergarments and were constantly
humiliating the prisoners. They put people in solitary confinement and worst of all they abused
the prisoners, especially during the nights when they thought the were not being watched. This is
one of the main reasons the experiment was shut down early. The prisoners also fell into the
roles. They felt trapped and hopeless and they became their number. They felt they were stuck in
the experiment, that they were really in prison.

This experiment helps point out that anyone, in whatever frame of mind, can do bad
things. Especially if they are surrounded by a certain scene everyday, all day. This can also relate
to criminals in the outside world. Sometimes people grow up in poorer areas and violence is all
they know in life. They may use that to deal with certain things, certain emotions, the way they
have seen some other people around them do. Since that is what they always have lived around,
they may not know that it is wrong and/or illegal. Sometimes they may really not know any
better and may not have any logic. For example, currently, on one of the FBIs most wanted lists,
the Violent Crimes-Murders category, a woman by the name of Shadia Mahamed Muse is
wanted for the murder of her newborn daughter. What her summary says is that she came into
the hospital with stomach pains after giving birth to her daughter in the shower. She then
wrapped the baby up in some form of cloth and put it in a relatives car trunk where the baby
died. This happened in Columbus, Ohio which does have some good and some not so good parts,
like any city. If placed in the not so good area, an argument could occur of her either not
having money for an abortion and not wanting the baby afterwards. She was only 18 years old at
the time of the incident so it would make sense if she was a scared teenager who did not know
what to do. Just the surroundings can effect someone in such a way.
Another example of this is our dear Public Enemy #1, Mr. Al Capone. He and his family
were actually considered somewhat wealthy. He grew up in Brooklyn, near the Navy Yard. The
constant presence of the sailors and their harshness seeped into him. This was visible from a
young age and would later lead to his reputation. The first sign of really violence was when he
was expelled from school because he hit a teacher. After that he was a, so called, apprentice for

Johnny Torrio and his reputation grew from there. He was now not only surrounded by the sailor
culture but now was highly influenced by gangs and gang leadership. This, and the legacy Torrio
left for him to take charge of, lead him to do many illegal things, mainly bootlegging, gambling
and prostitution. However, there is at least one account of a murder he committed but got aways
with. The people around and the environment always effects people and have an influence on
how they will react in certain situations. A fictional example of this is Bane from the Batman
comics. He has to serve out his parents sentence in the prison where he was born and grows up
amongst convicts and criminals. He murders at age 8 and builds his reputation and strength in
prison. He breaks out and goes straight for Gotham City. All he knows is what the criminals
around him have taught him and told him about the outside world.
There can also be a traumatic event in the criminals life which can lead to a boiling
hatred that eventually gets out. This is shown in another Batman villain, Mr. Freeze. The
accident that causes him to become Mr. Freeze, getting soaked in cryopreservation fluids which
lowers his body temperature drastically and changed his body chemistry, and the terminal illness
of his wife cause him to turn violent. He harmed anyone who he thought did him and his wife,
Nora, wrong. However his entire life is not devoted to evil, like the Joker or Bane. In one of the
animated films, Nora is restored to her healthy self and because Mr. Freeze can no longer touch
or get near her, he leaves and lets her live her life without him, thinking him dead.
The idea that criminals are made, not born can be justified, if not proven in a
dozen different ways. It does differ from situation to situation because every criminal is
different. Any situation is essentially out of their control, whether it be where they grew up to if

they have a mental illness or not. Anything can really cause someone to go sour if they do not
know how to handle themselves properly. Anger is very prominent in many crimes, especially
violent ones. It is usually directed at someone or a group of people. Something had to have
ticked these people off, whether it be their own mind or something from their past. They react
wildly to these stimuli and often do not see how a situation could never be their own fault.
Nothing ever just happens out of random, it has to be triggered. Zimbardo was correct with this
theory but never actually aimed to prove it. His Stanford Prison experiment was made to try and
see how anyone could better the American prison system. Currently, and at the time of the
experiment, the major prisons in this country were denying their prisoners basic human rights,
and he was trying to come up with solutions. Everything in society effects its citizens, whether it
be in a positive or negative way. The trick is to try to control emotion and keep a level and
logical head in all situations.

Works Cited
"Al Capone." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015.
"FBI's Most Wanted- Violent Murders." Fbi.gov. FBI, 27 Aug. 2010. Web. 1 June 2015.
<http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/murders>.

Langley, Travis. Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight. Hoboken, N.J.: John
Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print.

Lohr, David. "10 Most Notorious Criminals In American History." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 12 Sept. 2013. Web. 1 June 2015.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/americas-most-notoriouscriminals_n_3761487.html>.

"Mental Illness Not Usually Linked to Crime, Research Finds." Mental Health Weekly Digest 5
May 2014. Print.

"Stanford Prison Experiment." The : A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment.

Web. 1 June 2015. <http://www.prisonexp.org/psychology/42>.