Legal Commentary

Mentally Disabled Residents Forced to Fight

By TChris

It's interesting that people who want to exercise authority over others (in careers like law enforcement and corrections) are often the wrong people to entrust with that kind of power. Case in point: Corpus Christi State School employees who forced "mentally disabled residents into late-night prize fights."

Authorities say vivid video footage captured on cellphone cameras shows staffers goading young mentally disabled male residents of the institution into physical altercations, then shoving them at each other until fights ensued.

How could one employee, much less a group of them, be so twisted as to tolerate this abusive behavior? Here's one explanation:

Some researchers believe that sadism has a genetic component, and that people who are biologically predisposed to it select jobs where they have authority over others' well-being.

The linked article discusses the "notorious" Zimbardo experiment at Stanford, where students playing the roles of prison guards quickly abused students playing the roles of inmates.

The abuse, Zimbardo theorized in his book The Lucifer Effect, couldn't have been innate. The "guards" were congenial, bright students from good families, who returned to their normal selves after being released from the study.

However you explain the behavior of the Corpus Christi State School employees, it's hard to believe ... and impossible to justify.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 15, 2009 (boomark / email).