If your brain is wired to feel an altered sense of emotion, should you be treated like the rest of the general population? 

A morphed sense of empathy, being anti-social, and being egotistical are all traits held by a specific group of people: psychopaths. 

I have experienced this word: psychopath. As a verb in opposition to a disorder, it is imperative to understand this is not just a description to depict the mean girl at school; this is a serious, near haunting, psychological disorder.

The common view of a psychopath is that they are unable to process or feel emotions like empathy, remorse, and regret. How true is this allegation?

In each of our brains, we have a temporal lobe; within this lies the amygdala. This is where our brains primarily process decision-making, and it is responsible for our fear response. A collection of x-rays done have shown in psychopaths that this part of the brain may be reduced by up to eighteen percent. The result? An altered sense of intelligence in decision-making.

The Harvard Gazette’s “A Revised Portrait of Psychopaths” introduced a new study. This claim basically states that psychopaths’ problems lie not in the feeling of these emotions prior to decision making, but in the accuracy of the forecasting on the impact of what they may be choosing to do. In essence, they can’t calculate how the choices they make may inflict regret later. 

“It’s almost like a blindness to future regret,” Joshua Buckholtz, an associate professor of psychology at Harvard, proclaims. 

How does this correlate with criminals and violent crime committers? 

A constant sense of boredom and yearning for excitement entices the brain of a psychopath. Another trait most psychopaths carry is the ability to make sufficient first impressions as well as the remarkable ability to obtain trust. This sense of manipulation plays an important role in a large group of criminals. 

The mind of a psychopath works in a completely different manner than that of the average person, so I offer this question: should the criminal justice system treat them equally?

My answer is yes. Though I can understand this is a mental impairment, the conviction of such felons should be treated as the average person. A crime is a crime, no matter the committee. 

Though psychopaths lack, in some way, the basic ability to predict the result of their actions, if you are able to plot and execute the process for murder, confinement may lend itself as a sole option to deal with the capability someone of this manner may process. Any person, psychopath or not, who parades the ability to inflict harm or death on another person warrants nothing less than jail.

With no proven treatment, this seems to be the only acceptable solution.

However, for many prosecuted individuals, there is a better answer.

In the 1960s, the U.S. ended the operation of large treatment facilities for those with mental illnesses. This in turn led to many of these people going to jail instead. Many people in the system suffer from treatable illnesses but have been placed in the prison system rather than a treatment facility.  

In this situation, I find myself answering my prior question in a completely opposite conclusion. If a treatment is available to end or stifle a mental disorder, I am in full support of doing just that.  

While I can empathize with those suffering these intrusive mental disorders, I still cannot dismiss the capability of said individuals at hand. If a crime is committed—especially one to the degree at death—one must be held accountable.