Both Typecasting and Jekylls and Hydes have proven that before the technological advances of the 19th century, finding criminals and punishing them was neither easy nor fool proof. The increased reliance of technology in the 20th century made DNA testing a household word and lawyers made it appear to be an infallible truth. But is it really?
The study and understanding of DNA and genetics is still far from complete. In 1993 scientists finally isolated the gene for Huntington’s Disease (HD), a hereditary genetic disorder which deteriorates the brain, after over 100 years of studying families affected by the disease. As the brain slowly deteriorates, so does the affected person’s ability to walk, talk, and reason.
When my Grandfather was diagnosed with the disease in 1995, he had already lost his reputation to the disease. He was arrested multiple times for DUIs and disorderly conduct but he never drank a day in his life.
Early HD symptoms look a lot like drunken/drug related behavior. The person undergoes physical changes; a lack of balance, frequent stuttering, an involuntary twitch in the hands. Cognitive abilities begin to weaken as well, creating lapses in short term memory and altering behavior.
DNA might be your unique “unquestionable identity” but just because someone can see and match DNA doesn’t mean that they can read it and understand its meaning, that much is clear just from the history of HD. I hate to quote a movie but Ian Malcolm tells John Hammond, the creator of Jurassic Park, “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” I think the same idea applies to using DNA in criminal investigations. How can anyone have faith in a system that uses anything without understanding or respecting its power?
After reading this post, it got me thinking about what happens with cases of Multiple Personalities Disorders or Dissociative Identity Disorder. It is said that this disorder is based when there is some type of trauma during childhood. The person is trying to dissociate from a violent or traumatic situation. It is said that there were no much cases of multiple personalities until 1973 with the case of Shirley Mason or so called Sybil. It was said she had 16 personalities with various talents. There has been criminal acts done with people who claimed to have multiple personalities. Some fake and some in my opinion real. It is hard to tell. Even the most experienced experts it’s hard to identified. All the cases of multiple personalities blame one of the entities of being the one who committed the crime. In my opinion, in present time every single criminal wants to plea insanity. It seems that is so easy to manipulate this subject. For example, what about a person who blends in with society, whom it is known as a normal human being, sociable, kinds, etc. This persons passion is to kill and he/she do it while living his/her normal life. Then when this person is caught, then he/she can plea not guilty because she had multiple personalities and all the crimes where done when the other personality was in control. So how the jury can decide what is true or not?. In this case, we know that this person liked to kill and there is no other personalites, but this person can get away with murder because society knew her/him as a normal person. So the question is when do we draw the line with criminal activities based in so called “INSANITY”?
PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLES
http://www.currentpsychiatry.com/pdf/1006/1006CP_Article3.pdf
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/multiples/index.html http://lawweb.usc.edu/why/students/orgs/ilj/assets/docs/10-2%20Sinnott-Armstrong+Behnke.pdf