18. Tough Titties

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"You," I say, pointing at a random student near the front of the room

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"You," I say, pointing at a random student near the front of the room. "What stops you from doing bad things?"  I ask, still buzzing off the orgasm Orion gave me in the supply closet. I wonder if he can still taste me on his tongue...

"Uh...bad things like what?" she asks, caught off guard from being put on the spot.

"Say your neighbor ran over your dog with the malicious intent of killing it. What stops you from killing them?"

"I have a cat." She says, blinking rapidly.

"Fine, someone ran over your cat. Do you kill them?"

The girl's eyes widen. "No."

"Why not?" I ask when I realize she wasn't planning on continuing.

"Because it would be wrong to end their life. Oh and my mom would definitely beat my ass and I'd end up in jail." her statement earns a few chuckles around the room and I smile at her cooperation, happy she's finally getting the program. 

I like to cold call students and give them random scenarios because not only does it keep them on their toes, but it ensures they pay attention to my lectures. Also, if they can relate to the material they're more likely to actively engage with it, not just to consume and regurgitate random knowledge they'll forget the second they leave my class.

"If you knew you could get away with it, would you kill them for running your cat over?"

She thinks about it for a moment before shaking her head. "No. I'd feel horrible about it and it would probably haunt me for weeks." 

"What about you?" I point at another student.

This student speaks without a moment of hesitation. "I really fucking love my dog so I probably wouldn't kill them but I'd at least lightly maim them." he says with a straight face and a few people chuckle.

"So if you know that it would be wrong to kill them no matter how much you'd theoretically want to, what makes serial killers different? Are they killing people because they can't differentiate right from wrong and believe they're killing for just reasons? Maybe they're killing people because, while they know it's wrong they have no control of their impulses? Or are they killing people because they only care about satisfying their urge to kill, morality be damned?

"The answer is: all of the above. Like snowflakes no two killers are the same. While they may share qualities in common, and have similar patterns that can be observed and tracked, each have unique deviations from what we'd call 'typical' behavior.

"In order to truly consider the role morality plays in serial killing, we must first distinguish moral norms from moral expectations and preferences. This would be the difference between what we think people should do, what we think people will do, and what we hope people will do." I pause, hearing the frantic click-clacking of students taking notes on their laptops and the faint scribbles of pencils scrambling to jot down information before the next slide comes up.

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