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Where is the Social Justice?

Stephen Hawking once said: I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says
something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely
destructive. We've created life in our own image . In other words, human nature can cause
massive amounts of destruction. It is, regretfully, a part of each and every one of us . Some are
able to contain this violent person inside of us, while some are not able to . This made me think a
lot deeper about the world we currently live in.

Dictionary.com defines social justice as

the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society.

This is a very vague

definition, but it is the working one since there are a variety of different definitions. It is hard to
say that social justice exists in everyone one of us, seeing that we are all apart of society. Does
social justice apply to those who are mentally ill? Does it apply to the kids who may not have
chance at living a good life due to zero role models? Nonetheless these are difficult and near
impossible questions to ask. So to try and ask the question on whether or no social justice exists
in certain individuals the mentally ill and people with no role models I must go deep. Deep
by looking at illnesses and its heritability. Heritability is important to shed some light on
because kids do not choose their mental illness, they are given. With that said, the idea of social
justice is somewhat flawed. Which made me wonder even more about social justice and what it
means to me. All in all, the topics I want to closely look at is the whole idea of nature and
nurture. I want to see which ideology is a more of a detriment to a child and adult. According to
the National Comorbidity Survey, adults with mental illnesses are two to eight times greater to
commit violence in comparison to the general population . Going to the next point: A variety of

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illnesses are heritable.

For example, a parent with Schizophrenia has a 10-percent chance that

their offspring will later develop the disorder, resulting in a two-to-eight times chance of
committing a violent crime, such as murder . To no surprise, there are always at least two
ideologies to a debate. In this case, one ideology of this hugely debated topic is nature: The
ability to not change a persons behavior . In other words, if a person is violent, he/she is a
violent person period. Its counter argument would then be the nurture ideology: The way a child
is brought up matters. Finding support for either ideology is by no means straightforward .
There is a lot of eye-opening evidence for both ideologies, but the most appealing evidence
comes from the nature ideology. Nonetheless, nurture does matter, but nature plays a role as
well as nurture when it comes to molding a child . There were many stories and scholarly articles
regarding the genes, frontal cortex and various emotional disorders . With all this evidence from
both ideologies presented, I then will give my own ideas regarding which topic to look closer
when it comes to the attaining true social justice for two struggling groups of people.
It was July 17, 1889 when a young boy was spotted in a buggy. A neighbor had spotted it
and stopped this little boy. Without flinching, the boy told the neighbor that his parents were
dead at his house. When police arrived the boys home, it was gruesome . The murder scene
included his mother and father. The father had a gunshot wound in the face and his face was
beat in into an unrecognizable state, while the step mothers face was only bludgeoned into an
unrecognizable state. This was the most violent crime the residents of Clayton County, Iowa had
ever seen. There was no evidence. To catch the criminal, the Mayor of Clayton County set a

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reward for $500.00 to whom ever caught the criminal . Then, without any evidence being found,
the police started to look into John Wesley Elkins, the son of the two murdered parents .
Eventually, Elkins confessed to the double homicide. In his letter confession, Elkins claimed he
murdered his parents because they were giving Elkins too many chores. Elkins was 11 years old,
48 tall and weighing in at about 73 pounds . Elkins was sentenced to a maximum-security
prison to serve a life sentence. Over the course of 12 years, Elkins was gaining a lot of public
notoriety because of the letters he was writing . Elkins wrote so well that the people of Clayton
County were amazed that this boy who murdered his parents could change. Of course, there
were skeptics who often compared him to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or, in other words, a person
who can put on a favorable face while still having a horrifying mindset . Nonetheless, Elkins was
considered to be released by the local government. Elkins states that he was too young to know
what he was doing and that he felt it was unjust to be sentenced to life at such a young age . It
turns out the local government felt the same way. Elkins was released from prison at the age 23 .
He married and died of old age. There is no evidence that he had ever committed a crime after
his release. To sum this idea up, people can change . If nature had a strong enough hold on
Elkins, then Elkins would have most definitely committed more crimes, as opposed to getting
married and dying of old age. This story is a prime example of nurture being a huge player in
this case. I would say that the maximum security prison taught him to be such an excellent
writer. He also obtained noteworthy values from other prisoners, leading to his release at the age

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of 23. This could have easily been a single story outcome if it were not for his writing skills and
the people who truly believed he changed.
This next story is from a personal experience. With that being said, the persons name
has been changed because I do not have any communication with this person any longer . This,
again, is in support for the nurture ideology.
I first met Craig in my freshman year of high school. He was a good guy he did not
involve himself with gangs and was a solid student . Craig lived only with his mother and his
little brother. His father, who is still a current gang member, was living with his girlfriend .
Craig was then introduced to drugs like marijuana and prescription pain killers . This caused him
to miss class and consequently led to his grades being dropped . Throughout his high school
years, we were pretty good friends. Therefore, I know a lot about him than other people might
not know. Craig did not end up passing high school. He ended up dropping out senior year as
soon as he found out he did not have enough credits to graduate on stage . His father was not
really absent, instead his father did not visit him as much . Craigs father visited him about once
or twice a month, sometimes even missing a month . This experience is what led him to start
smoking and drinking. Craigs mother, although supported him financially, from what he told
me, was out drinking at local bars, while Craig baby-sat his little brother. Craig did not really
have a male role model or a role model in general to look up to. He was alone. Craig had no
one to push him to be a better person, to get exceptional grades and to not abuse drugs . Craig
currently lives with his father where he passes time by smoking weed and playing video games .

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Craigs story is a prime example of not having anyone to look up to, which led him to not live a
life he may have wanted, but instead was given.
In comparison to me, I also had a gang member for a dad but, he switched his life around
and became a paralegal. I am lucky to have both of my parents in my life . With my parents,
they have the ability to push me to do better and to act as role models . In my freshman year of
high school, I failed every class and I am not exaggerating. I had to take night school my second
semester of my freshman year and night school every upcoming semester until my senior year . I
was going to school from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. I could honestly say that I would not be here
typing a paper for my writing social justice class if it was not for both of my parents being there
for me.
So, yes nurture does play a pretty big role, but let us not take the nature ideology too
lightly. There is still a mouthful of evidence in support of the nature ideology . This, again,
includes the genes, frontal cortex, and various emotional disorders.
Genes are not as disposable like a pair of jeans. In fact, if you are born with a certain
gene then you will be stuck with that specific gene for the rest of your life , unlike the pair of
jeans you have in the washer. To further explain what a gene is, it is a hereditary trait that is
passed on from a parent to their offspring . The gene is hugely important on the natures ideology
of the debate. An interesting quote from a scholarly article entitled Nature or nurture?--the
debate of the century, a category error, and the illuminating impact of evolutionary psychology .

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By Eckart Voland states: The difference between dandelions, for example, which grow
differently in different locations depends on the environmentAt the same time, it is also
"innate," Because the genetic programs of the dandelion prescribe how the developing plant
should react to different location conditions. To condense this quote, Voland was comparing
dandelions to human life. He describes how the genetics, in dandelions, are the corner stone to
growing in an environment. I came across an article entitled Do Your Genes Make You a
Criminal written by Steve Connor from the Independent . This quote read Another Danish
study, this time of identical twins who are reared apart in different families, appears to support
the notion of being born with a criminal disposition . According to Sarnoff Mednick, a
psychologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a child whose biological parents
are criminals is more likely than other children to begin a criminal career himself even if his
adopted parents are law abiding. To further explain this quote, it is estimated that 50 percent of
biological twins genes are shared. Therefore, this quote is saying that if a set of twins are born
from parents from a criminal background and are then given to step-parents who are law abiding
citizens the twins still have more of chance to commit a crime . Although this is not coming from
a scholarly article, it is still something to take note of . Psychologists Craig Anderson and Brad
Bushman wrote a scholarly article regarding human aggression . Anderson and Bushman explain
how certain traits, values, attitudes and many more traits that play a role in a human regarding
aggressiveness. On traits, Anderson and Bushman explain how a high self-esteem also produces
high aggression. Another recent breakthrough contradicts longstanding beliefs of many
theoreticians and the lay public alike: A type of high self-esteem (and not low self-esteem)

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produces high aggression. Specifically, individuals with inflated or unstable self-esteem
(narcissists) are prone to anger and are highly aggressive when their high self-image is
threatened. In other words, born narcissists are prone to anger because they feel they are
threatened by other individuals who may have nicer looking eyes . This ultimately creates a bully
a person who picks on people who have it better . Now as for Anderson and Bushmans
summarization of values, they feel that for many people, violence and aggression is the best
method to handle situations involving other people. The authors use a gang as evidence. They
state that: There is evidence that some youth gang violence results from similar code of honor
and personal respect. This quote shows that this code of honor is embodied into every human .
This is just because in some parts of the southern and western regions of the United States,
people feel that personal honor must be responded with violence (Anderson and Bushman) . So
in other words, this code of honor has been used for so long, it has become a part of us leading
to the possibility of aggression to other individuals.
What in the world is the frontal vortex? I asked myself . The frontal cortex is the part
of the brain that associates with behavior, motor skills and even problem solving . Knowing this,
I knew this had something to offer in favor of the nature ideology . To no surprise, I did find a
scholarly article entitled Performance of Psychopaths on Cognitive Tasks Related to Frontal
Lobe Function. The purpose of this study was to evaluate psychopaths on certain skills . These
specific skills included matching memory tasks and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test . They
found that psychopaths made more errors on matching memory task than the controlled subjects

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and students, while the psychopaths [made] more preservative errors on the Wisconsin Card
Sorting Test
There was an Ohio State University study. In this study, male inmates that were admitted
into Indiana State Prison were asked if they have ever had any type of traumatic brain injury .
About 36 percent of inmates reported that they had some type of traumatic brain injury,
therefore, more likely to have a psychiatric disorder and a prior period of incarceration than those
without. This is a phenomenal finding. This study sheds a lot more light for the nurture
ideology, but the eye-opening evidence does not stop there. Another scholarly article entitled
High prevalence of brain pathology in violent prisoners: A qualitative CT and MRI scan study
reports that violent prisoners brains have higher brain abnormalities that non-violent offenders
and the general public. An alarming amount of scholarly articles were found relating to traumatic
brain injury, violent inmates and inmates in general . In this study, Australian inmates were given
a sheet to fill out and answer a variety of questions . Although many inmates have the ability to
lie on this sheet, researchers also had permission to access the participants medical records .
Their findings are definitely eye-opening . The prevalence of serious mental illness within
prison populations far exceeds that within community samplesa systematic review of over 60
prisoner mental health surveys comprising data from nearly 23 000 individuals, 3 .7% of men had
psychotic illness, 10% major depression, and 65% personality disorderThese rates are more
than four times those found for current psychotic disorders. To condense this long quote, their
findings shed light on the whole nature debate . These Australian inmates have exceeded the
current population of having mental disorders.

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Hereditary disorders, in my opinion, constitute as an argument for the nature ideology. I
feel this way because a hereditary disorder is something you are born with and, most, if not all,
are treatable, but the chances of it going away forever are very slim . Emotional disorders are
sometimes chaotic. Take for example Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a disorder where people
will fall back from reality and then fall into a fantasy world. This can lead to violent actions.
Schizophrenia is, in no doubt, hereditary. An article entitled Five Major Mental Disorders
Share Genetic Roots published by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) states:
National Institutes of Health-funded researchers discovered that people with disorders
traditionally thought to be distinct autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depression and
schizophrenia were more likely to have suspect genetic variation at the same four chromosomal
sites. This, in short, is saying that autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depression and
schizophrenia are the most heritable in comparison to any other mental disorder. With that said,
nature plays a major role when being infected with a possible aggressive mental disorder .
This would lead for children to be at a disadvantage making it difficult to reach total social
justice.
In conclusion, to include this idea of social justice to everyone is impossible. Some
children will always grow up as a disadvantage like my ex best friend Craig did and some
children will develop a mental illness that will set them farther back from society. It is not easy
to say, but this cotton candy idea of social justice everywhere is possible; although far from
reality. The side that needs help is both. Mental patients are highly comparable to children
raised with zero role models. They are both looked down upon not only in the media, but also in

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face value. Mental patients do not have a decision and their illness may not be random as my
evidence shows.

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Works Cited

Anderson, Craig A., and Brad J. Bushman. "Human Aggression." Annualreviews.org. ANNUAL
REVIEWS, 4139 EL CAMINO WAY, PO BOX 10139, PALO ALTO, CA 94303-0139 USA,
Feb. 2002. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Connor, Steve. "Do Your Genes Make You a Criminal?" The Independent. Independent Digital
News and Media, 12 Feb. 1995. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

"Five Major Mental Disorders Share Genetic Roots." NIMH RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Hare, Robert D. "Performance Of Psychopaths On Cognitive Tasks Related To Frontal Lobe

Function." Journal Of Abnormal Psychology 93.2 (1984): 133-140. PsycARTICLES. Web. 7 Dec.
2015.

Judge, Phoebe, Eric Mennel, and Lauren Spohrer. "EPISODE SIXTEEN: POSTER BOY
(2.20.2015)." Criminal. Radiotopia, 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

Ray, Bradley, Dona Sapp, and Ashley Kincaid. "Traumatic Brain Injury Among Indiana State
Prisoners." Journal Of Forensic Sciences (Wiley-Blackwell) 59.5 (2014): 1248-1253. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Schiltz, Kolja, et al. "High Prevalence Of Brain Pathology In Violent Prisoners: A Qualitative CT
And MRI Scan Study." European Archives Of Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience 263.7 (2013):
607-616. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Schofield, Peter W., et al. "Neuropsychiatric Correlates Of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Among
Australian Prison Entrants." Brain Injury 20.13/14 (2006): 1409-1418. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.