What Makes Someone Be So Cruel?

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Like a lot of other people, I've been following the Poling case closely. But another case in the news caught my attention this week.

This week, in the sleepy Mississippi river town of Alton, IL, 6 people have been charged in the death of a developmentally disabled woman who was 6 months pregnant. The 6 people charged range in age from 43 down to 12 years old. According to the story

Police said the autopsy revealed Dixon died on January 31 after being repeatedly shot with a BB gun, being scalded with a hot liquid and being beaten on her head and body. They said Dixon's fetus also died.

And lest we think that this horrid incident was a crime of passion,

Police said the attacks lasted for four to eight weeks.

I agree with others that it's not these things we need to worry about so much, as everyone realizes how unacceptable this behavior is, and that most people, when it is explained what the Judge Rotenberg Center does, also feel that it is unacceptable. I also feel that what we really have to worry about are the things that fly under our radar, like all the things that happen in institutions daily that we never hear about, and how most of us never think twice about the "helping" paradigm in disability.

But still, when I read a story like this one, I still don't understand how people can do such things to each other.

All involved in this have been charged with first degree murder, as well as a variety of other charges.