We have been down the path recommended by Brian Holden many, many times before. The science of predicting human conduct provides no ground for confident certainty that present symptoms of psychopathy are a reliable guide to future criminality. The outcome of reliance on those predictions to take preventive action against individuals is always the same. Powers to stigmatise, imprison or otherwise restrain our fellow citizens, not because they have committed a crime, but because they might commit a crime at some time in the future, are always misused. They are misused particularly against those who are least able, by reason of poverty, ethnicity or other vulnerabilities, to defend themselves against official oppression. Justice towards our fellow citizens is a necessary restraint on official sanctions in a liberal democratic society. The case for abandoning the requirements of justice is not advanced by relating those rare cases of peculiarly horrible crimes. Particularly so when their details are related with such apparent relish.

the legal system is not geared up to prevent possible future crimes, no matter how heinous, on the probability that 1 person in a hundred is a psychopath. What if a mistake were made, but the victim of The Clockwork Orange preventative treatment has already been through permanent 'therapy'? What's to be done with such a person then? They might as well have Alzheimer's, or a complete lobotomy.

We are destined to live with all manner of evil, and we have to learn how to deal with it. We can open our eyes to hanging cat behavior from an early age, and do something about it, like electronic surveillance, for the sake of the rest of us. But psychopathic behavior is something which, like a bad toothache, simply cannot be ignored. Sooner or later, it must be dealt with, or we all pay the price.

Doctors and pyschologist have already managed to get about 20% or more of our kids on drugs to manage their behaviour. One wonders how many of them are going to be addicted to harder drugs leading to no conscience at all.

Mr. Holden,

Is a Psychopath one who doesn’t have a pension or superannuation and doesn’t live I a house?

Please tell me, I need to know!

Brian Holden.What if our Govt labelled you a psychpath,removed all your rights and had you gaoled for life with no legal redress? In the USA you can be arrested on the mere suspicion of being a terrorist and gaoled for life with no legal recourse.

The really dangerous psychopaths control our finance systems and hence our Govts and the nuclear weapons.Israel is seriously threatening to attack Iran.This is a far bigger concern.

Ah, what terrific logic

But let’s take it further. According to the ABS, there is one minority in Australia that is five times more likely than the rest of the population to commit murder, four times more likely to commit assault intending to cause injury, seven times more likely to commit robbery, ten times more likely to commit weapons offences and 27 times more likely to commit sexual assault.

(http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/subscriber.nsf/log?openagent&41250 Safety and Justice.xls&4125.0&Data Cubes&900928C4C1508E1CCA2578FD00187729&0&Jul 2011&02.09.2011&Latest)

Forget the psychopaths, let’s just lock up all the men!

Or ... perhaps we should continue to treat people as individuals, rather than condemning them because of the category they belong to.