Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence

Mary Moua
ASA 002 Section A01
Blog Entry #5
10/18/15

Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence

 

Hamamoto's argument that the military and its other associations play a role in influencing the murders of individuals was interesting to me. Prior to this reading, I had never thought that a person's participation in the military would be a reason for their killing spree but it was through this reading that I was able to see the correlation. For example, Hamamoto mentions that the history of mass murders dates all the way back to the Vietnam War which proves that the war has caused many detrimental effects to those involved in it such as influencing individuals to kill and murder others because they might have done so in the Vietnam War. It was also interesting reading the type of people that was killed, such as only white female college students or People of Color. There are many reasons to why a person regardless of their gender might commit murder or kill people, such as because of the color of their skin which Hamamoto refers to as "Race Murder", but to read that the military is an influence was interesting and fascinating because it's a reason I never thought of before until this reading.

 

Question: Do serial killers and murderers receive the appropriate punishments for their actions or are they easily punished because of their skin color or for excuses they use such as mental illnesses and sickness?

 

(Jeffrey Dahmer)