The End Zone Podcast

Dr. Jenna Morrow and special guest Manny Palacios discuss the influence of childhood experiences on criminal behavior. They analyze the main characters from the book "In Cold Blood" and suggest that childhood abuse, trauma, and educational opportunities significantly impact a person's likelihood of becoming a criminal. The discussion also focuses on the role of peer influences and parenting in shaping a child's future behavior. The participants agree that there is no single factor that determines criminal behavior, but a combination of personal experiences and circumstances play a role. Welcome to the end zone, I'm your host Trevor Hinton and today I have with me Dr. Jenna Morrow and Special Guest from Kansas, Manny Palacios. Would you all please introduce yourselves. Good morning everybody, my name is Dr. Jenna Morrow and I received my Ph.D. in psychology from Cornell University. I also have an underlying masters in human resources and I currently work under my own firm as a psychologist in children's behaviors. Good morning everyone, I'm from Kansas and have a degree in criminal justice and have worked with the NYPD for 20 years. One of the main reasons I got a degree in criminal justice is because of the clutter of family murders in the book In Cold Blood. To discuss this topic we will be taking a look at the main characters of the book In Cold Blood by Jim Capote. The first character we are going to look at today is Perry Smith. How does a person's childhood affect their adulthood? As a child Perry was abused by his father and this abuse led to him having violent tendencies in his adulthood life. Research has shown that criminals' childhood can often have significant impacts on their upbringings and can be a contributing factor to criminal behavior later in life. Some ways that criminals' childhood has been known to affect their upbringing could be their family background, which is how children who are brought up in families with a history of criminal behavior may be more likely to become criminals themselves due to the normalization of such behavior and lack of positive role models. Another very high contributing factor could be a parenting style. Children who grow up in households where they experience neglect, abuse, or harsh punishment may be more likely to engage in criminal behavior later in life as a way to cope with their negative experiences. Also very big contributing factors to this could be mental health and physical health. Children who experience physical abuse in childhood have increased risk factors of physical health problems such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and can lead to increased health care costs and decreased productivity due to missed work or disability. Also, children who suffer from mental abuse can lead to more mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. And this really affects their adulthood life because they're, one, they're used to having these factors in their life and so without their parents there to, you know, carry on this issue, they have to find, they have to find problematic solutions elsewhere by, you know, engaging in criminal activity or, exactly, substance abuse or alcoholism. Okay, that makes sense for the main character Perry Smith with his criminal behavior being related to his childhood. But for the other main character Dick Hickok, he had a fairly normal life with a normal family and he didn't have these traumatic experiences that Perry Smith did. So what made Dick become a criminal since he had a normal childhood? Many criminals usually start by having some traumatic accident like Dick and according to the book it was never the same. And while he had a good childhood, it is stated that he started hanging out with older men and started drinking and stealing stuff and that led him to the criminal lifestyle he had and, of course, committed the Carter family murder. Yeah, I really agree with that because studies show that peer influences have a really, really high influence on children who grow up to become criminals. Children who grow up in neighborhoods and communities with high crime rates may be more likely to engage in criminal activity themselves due to the peer pressure or the belief that criminal behavior is the normal. That accident must have been a pretty traumatic experience for him to start drinking and behaving in the ways that are completely uncharacter from his normal life. So I agree with you, Manny, and I agree with you, Dr. Jenner, that that accident probably is the reason he committed criminals in the first place. He became a criminal in the first place. Another factor that I looked at is, I'm wondering, can a child's education level impact their adult life? I say yes because in the book it is stated that Perry hated his siblings so much because they got to get an education that he always wanted. Perry saw him get out of school in third grade. I think without that education, Perry would have been a better person and not turned into a life of crime. Even in the book, it's shown that he's interested in geography and poetry and such before he committed a crime. Yes, I agree. Educational opportunities often have a really high impact on the way that children grow up and the person that they become as an adult. Children who grow up in low-income households or neighborhoods may not have access to the same educational opportunities as their wealthier peers, which can limit their career prospects and increase likelihood of engaging in criminal activity as means of survival. Also, children who experience neglected abuse may struggle with academic performances. Even if Perry was able to go to school and get the education like his brothers and sisters, the level of abuse he experienced from his father would have significantly impacted his success in his academics. I feel like that would really have limited his job prospects and earning his life potential in the long run. Without this education and the opportunities that he was not given as a child, really led him to, like my research shows, led him to using criminal activity as means of survival. He really had no other way to get by. There are many reasons why a person would become a criminal, such as parent neglect, trauma, and even educational opportunities. Why do you all, what do you all personally believe is a leading factor in this? Well, in my opinion, I think that maybe the lack of proper parenting is what causes a person to have that behavior of turning into a criminal because the child is very gullible and usually follows the examples given to them, and where else do they get their examples from their parents or guardians under their care? Personally, I believe that childhood abuse is a very, very important factor in determining how a child grows up. Children are constantly, when they're in these abusive homes and abusive situations, children are constantly being hurt emotionally, physically, mentally, and they are trying to find coping skills, and without proper examples, like Manny said, from their guardians and their parents, they're not going to find these good quality coping mechanisms that they otherwise would have if they had good examples led to them by their parents. So I believe that abuse and childhood neglect is probably the main factor in determining criminal behavior. But Trevor, what do you honestly think is the most important factor in a child growing up into being an adult wife in a criminal world? I kind of agree with you, but I'm also a little bit disagreeing. I think the most important factor is trauma, how much trauma they experience. Because, for example, you all talked about parent neglect and everything, but I feel like trauma has just as big of an impact. Because for me, if I had anything with trauma, like any kind of accident, I know that would affect me physically and mentally, just like it affected Perry and Dick in the book. I can honestly agree with your standpoint, too, because with these accidents occurring, it causes these people to turn to poor coping mechanisms such as substance abuse or using alcohol, and I feel like that also leads to criminal behavior. I think that at the end of the day, I don't really think that there really is a way to judge what is right or wrong. Who gets to say what this is right or that is wrong? I think that there might be a way to raise a child in a healthy way, but then there's choices that will affect them either positively or negatively. I think that having a strong mentality and giving proper examples would help a child to develop correctly. I think Dick here would be a good example, since he made those terrible choices. I find this topic very interesting, considering I have a few personal experiences within this area. Growing up in a hostile environment caused me to overcome and strive for a better future, although for some people this is not the case, such as Perry. Some people who are raised in a completely normal childhood, such as Dick, can still in the long run become a criminal or an addict, but at the same time, it is hard to see what can and cannot be considered normal. Oftentimes, people who turn to a life of crime can combine this with a life of substance abuse or alcoholism, or the other way around. One may commit crimes in order to get the substances they use, or they may be using substances which cause them to commit the crimes. But sometimes even one may start a criminal life, but then get put in jail and become friends with people who are not of the same lifestyle as them, and then these people drag them down the wrong path. Such as Perry and Dick. Perry didn't want to be a criminal, but Dick permits him to do this job. Yeah, like peer pressure. Yes, exactly like peer pressure. On the other end of the spectrum for me, I have a few personal experiences of what a good example is. Because my dad and his two siblings were raised in a loving family, and no sibling was above the other. And all three of them grew up to become functioning members of society. So I feel like in a household where you're treated fairly, and you're taught right from wrong, you can become very functioning members of society. Yes, Trevor, I really agree with that. Because just like the Clutter family's children, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter, had everything right in the palm of their hands. They were set up for success. They were supposed to become decent, active members of society. Unlike Dick and Perry. Because the Clutter family's children hadn't experienced that abuse and neglect and trauma that Dick and Perry had experienced. And so that would have led to them becoming, you know, decent individuals if they would have survived. Yeah, I agree with that. All right. So to conclude this podcast, we have come to an agreement that both trauma and child neglect lead people in their childhood to come up with methods to cope with unhealthy ways. As we looked in the book In Cold Blood by Tripa Kapote, we learned that there are both examples of abuse and trauma affecting their daily lifestyles, such as both Dick and Perry who have had trauma and child abuse. This is Trevor Hannon, Dr. Jenna Morrow, and Manuel Palacios signing off. Transcribed by https://otter.ai