The news (posted here) that 2 boys aged 11 and 10 have been convicted of sadistically attacking and torturing other young boys has lead the media to question why they did it. Most newspapers have focused on the neglect and abuse the boys suffered at the hands of their parents and particularly their violent father. As I wrote in my last blog post this early history of abuse and neglect often leads to damaged brain development. However, this explanation doesn’t go far enough. Despite many children being abused and neglected very few go on to sadistically torture other children- see paper here reviewing the evidence. Therefore there has to been an additional explanation for such unusual behaviour. The key lies in understanding the development of empathy and distinguishing this from theory of mind (ToM). ToM relates to understanding other peoples mental states. Empathy is the ability to understand other peoples emotional states and to respond with appropriate emotion -as Simon Baron Cohen describes – experiencing an emotion triggered by other peoples emotion. People without empathy as considered psychopaths. They understand what other people are thinking or feeling (ToM) but do not feel the emotion themselves. They may feel a discordant feeling such as pleasure in response to other peoples pain or distress. Can this develop in children? Empathy normally develops at a very young age (about 14 months) and in my opinion is driven by genes- see some recent research here on this. I think therefore that this must develop in early childhood. There is likely to be a genetic predisposition that is triggered or made worst by an abusive childhood. Remember that in this case the children shared in part their violent father’s genes. The parent’s genes and experience will in turn shape the environment that the children are brought up in, thus leading to a toxic feedback cycle. Whilst it is difficult to think of children being psychopaths I fear that this is possible, although rare. I have probably seen about 10 children in my carer (out of 1000’s) with this presentation. It is difficult to know what you do about it other than try and minimize the resultant risks (which hasn’t happened in this case) or perhaps to intervene very early – although I am not aware of research showing that you can change this. To read more about the development of empathy see chapter 14 Social Neuroscience by Simon Baron Cohen and Bhismadev Chakrabati in our book Child Neuropsychology: Concepts, Theory, and Practice
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