Murder is as old as mankind, but today's killers are something else - almost incomprehensibly brutal and remorseless. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the making of a murderer - from the FBI agent who created criminal profiling. Also, the altruists among us - they'll do anything to save lives.
John Douglas, a 25 year veteran of the FBI, tells Jim Fleming some of the defining characteristics of the serial killing sociopath and says more cops on the street won't do any good until society corrects the conditions that create these monsters. Douglas is the co-author (with Mark Olshaker) of "Journey into Darkness" and "Mindhunter." Also, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman tells Judith Strasser how the military uses operant conditioning to overcome the innate resistance to killing and claims that the advertising and entertainment industries are using the same techniques on our children. Grossman is the author of "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Societry."SEGMENT 2:
A.M. Homes talks with Steve Paulson about her shocking novel, "The End of Alice," which chronicles the epistolary relationship between a young woman sexually involved with a twelve year old boy and an oddly charming imprisoned child-molesting murderer. She says the purpose of art is to raise questions, not answer them. A.M. Homes is with the writing program at Columbia University.SEGMENT 3:
Kristen Renwick Monroe teaches Politics and Political Psychology at the University of California at Irvine. She talks with Judith Strasser about her survey of altruists, characterizing them as people whose recognition of their common humanity with others is so compelling that they have no choice but to help those in need, whatever the risk.
flemingj@vilas.uwex.edu
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